


"tP <\' 















G^^- 






,? 'J 



■0^' V- ^' ^ " / ^<p 



i^"^ 






•■j*;' 



'/>'''^=*^-^> ' o^' 



.v: - 



<f^^l 



*'' -t 






. % 



.^ 



^ 



z/ 



0^ ^ ■> * " / 












V ^ V ^~ ,, ^ 



'\.4 






^ 






■"^Ao^. : 









^^-^ 



>^ 0^ : 



,^" ^- 



;>>< 



:^^ 



;^- 



\> ^^ " <• , -t^ 



9?. 



YT' 






P^^ 
^ 



<r ^ ' « ft ^ jr-* ^ -c . 






o'^^ 






"^AO^ 



?5 o^. 



^O. 









' ft •^ ^-^ 



cf 









^■i ^ 



'• ■:* /'.sis' 















X.^^- 






O 















cP- 



< 









-^ 



%^^ 



&■ 



%.S 





















-^H^-' 



<^^ 












■^-\r^ 


















'oft 



■^^o^ 



G^ ,^ ; 



^ 



O, ' » ft -< \ V ^ ^O^ ' ft ft '^ \ V 












ft ft '^ ■ \V 









.v,^^.;^ %. 0^. 






\. 



''t^. 






>f 






' ' ft ft s ^ ' aO 






^'^ ftftS^ _A^ 



..-:?^^ 



x^ 



C^ 1 » V'^ 



.f ^^. 






SV-^^ 



<<• 



:>^ 



=?<> 









.A'^ 



c 



o''' 

.^^ 



"^^0^ 



O^ "/ 



^ 






.Ho. 






■'^'"= ^.^'^ .•>^'^^*". %^«^ 









- '^ 



^C^^'^^'^^'^^'c ''^^' 



s^s%si/ '^ ■'.^^/.sj^ % ^:'^i;^.- ,<^^ % 



> \# 



<. 



d< 






V.-r°'^% 



V, 



^A0< 






"^^0^ 






ex '' 



^^^ 



o, ■ ^ o t ^ ' \V ~-o^ ^ t « 









0-, ■^,'=*^-'fs^.sj;?-'' 



^^^ ^- 






'b^\^ 















> '^. 












0^ r>^^<^o V 0^ : ,, i "^^ 0< 












^^^ ^^ 



^^ 









.V 



.^^ ^ ^Q. 



0-, 






\> ^ -> " " / ^ -^^ 






Of' < 









cP- ^ 



e-^ . 'o ^. 



0^ 






\^^,>'- t^ 



^--^ 



O^ -f IS 4 -> \ V 



,^" '^ 









Q. "^ 



* " ^ ^V 



.^' 



.V' 



^^^ -^' 



"9. 



.v^' 






■■^_ 'A^ *V 



^^' :|-i:>^.^^^<^ :^^ 



<5^ 






;^^^. 



0^ 

9.. 









6- 



■r, •^d' :: ^cJ< ;■/ 






*-l<2. 






0^ '-'/' O^ #' 
'»<•'■ \V 



x^^ ^- 



^o 



^ A^' 



.^' 



^^^^- 



.^G'^ 









r< 






.-0' 



ii 



THE LIFE 

OP 

CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 



< 



THE LIFE 



OF 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 



BY HIS GRANDSON 

WILLIAM M. MEIGS 



u 




PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1897 




VA L vr .n 3: y 



£3 ^ 



Copyright, 1897, 

BY 

William M. Meigs. 



/ 



/c? 



PREFACE. 



The life of Charles Jared Ingersoll should have 
been written thirty years ago. Not only would the 
writer at that time have had the great advantage of 
being able to secure those anecdotes and personal 
reminiscences which so largely make up the in- 
terest of biography; but, in addition to this, Mr. 
Ingersoll's name was then well known to all ob- 
servers of public affairs, and there would thus 
have been a large number of people interested to 
know more of him. Of course, in the long stretch 
of years since his death, the vast majority of these 
have died; and the period has, moreover, been 
filled with events of stupendous importance which 
have had the result of greatly changing the whole 
prevailing view of the history of his time. I know 
well that the generally accepted view to-day will 
disagree with not a little contained in the following 
book, as well as with no small portion of Mr. Inger- 
soll's political beliefs, but I trust that the time is 
near at hand when at least a patient hearing can be 
had. I have never been able to believe that Clay 
and Webster and that vast majority of our public 

5 



PREFACE. 

men before the civil war who consistently opposed 
the agitation of slavery were so hopelessly de- 
praved as some modern writers would have us 
believe. For my purpose it is not necessary to 
defend the institution of slavery, and I certainly 
have no intention to do so, as I utterly disapprove 
of it ; but it does not follow from its being a bad 
and thoroughly harmful system that those men 
were right in their day and generation who so per- 
sistently agitated against it, with an utter disregard 
of and contempt for the preservation of the Union. 
But I must leave my text to speak for itself. 

Whatever may be the final verdict of history 
upon all these questions, it cannot be doubted that 
the subject of this biography had a material in- 
fluence upon the development of the American 
character and institutions. Well known from his 
writings as an ardent admirer of his country and 
his countrymen, long before that view had come to 
be accepted, he was also one of the earliest advo- 
cates of the Second War with England, and was a 
leading man in Congress during the War of 1812 
and again from 1841 to 1849, as well as a leading 
lawyer in Philadelphia for over thirty years. A 
biography of such a man should exist; and, as 
none had heretofore been written, I took the sub- 
ject up a few years ago. I began by making 
every effort to find persons still surviving who 

could furnish personal reminiscences of Mr. Inger- 

6 



PREFACE. 

soil ; but, as he withdrew from public life nearly- 
half a century ago, my success in this way was 
but slight. I had, therefore, to turn to the public 
records and to private papers. A large mass of 
private letters was placed in my hands by Charles 
Edward Ingersoll, Esq., and some by Sydney- 
George Fisher, Esq. ; I am also under obligations 
to Judge Craig Biddle for letters of Mr. Ingersoll 
to Nicholas Biddle, to the late Miss Susan Dallas 
for some to Alexander J. Dallas, and to Mrs. Rich- 
ard A. Gilpin for some to Henry D. Gilpin. 

All of these I have gone over with care and 
have extracted a good deal from them. The large 
majority are, unfortunately, letters to Mr. Ingersoll, 
and I have seen comparatively few written by him. 
This is much to be regretted, for his letters are in 
general full of interest and instruction, as well as 
very vivacious. I have reproduced some of them, 
and have also reproduced at length in Chapter IV. 
a diary which he kept during a visit to Washington 
in 1823. This latter was written for the purpose 
of sending to Mr. Rush in England, and gives an 
extremely interesting picture of the social life and 
political struggles of the day. The student of his- 
tory and observer of mankind will certainly find 
both pleasure and profit in the intimate view the 
diary and his letters in general give of the great 
men and events of a past generation. 

I have reproduced two portraits of Mr. Inger- 

7 



PREFACE. 

soil. That one which represents him as a very- 
young man is from a miniature owned by Sydney 
George Fisher, Esq., and is thought to have been 
painted when he was about nineteen years of age. 
The other is from a portrait owned by Charles 
Edward IngersoU, Esq., which was painted in 

1839. 

I have put all mere authorities in one place in 

the end of the book, and have referred to them by 
numbers. 

William M. Meigs. 
Philadelphia, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Ingersoll Family — Jared Ingersoll the Elder, Co- 
lonial Agent from Connecticut — The Stamp Act 
and the Revolution — Jared Ingersoll the Younger, a 
Leading Lawyer in Philadelphia 13 

CHAPTER IL 

Birth — Boyhood and Youth — College — Political Pas- 
sions of the Time — "Edwy and Elgiva" — Admitted 
to the Bar — Goes to Europe — Marriage — Politics — 
"Rights and Wrongs" — " Inchiquin" — Early Po- 
litical Views and Development — Politics of the 
Period — War of 1812 — Elected to the Thirteenth 
Congress 26 

CHAPTER in. 

War of 1 81 2 — War-Hawks — Early Failures — Naval 
Triumphs — New England Opposition denounced — 
Thirteenth Congress — His Course in — Speeches — 
Answers Webster on Disunion — Collision with Mr. 
Stockton — New England Federalism — Not re- 
elected — His Position in Congress — Peace — United 
States District Attorney — Letters during the War . 68 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 
CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE 

The Bar — Wide Correspondence — Visit to Mr. Madi- 
son — Mr. Monroe and the Loan obtained for him — 
His Aid invoked in a Matrimonial Venture — Letters 
— Diary from Washington in 1823 — His Industry 
— Public Orations — Address on Reception of La 
Fayette — " Europe long ago" 94 

CHAPTER V. 

Era of Good Feeling — Andrew Jackson — Mr. Inger- 
soll defends Florida Campaign — State Assembly — 
In Canal Convention favors Railroads — General 
Convention of Manufacturers — The Tariff of 1828 
— Mr. IngersoU's Views on the Tariff and Com- 
merce — New York Convention of Friends of Do- 
mestic Industry — Support of Jackson — Nominated 
for United States Senate — Charges against of Im- 
proper Conduct as District Attorney — Bank of 
United States — Mr. IngersoU among its Supporters 
— Pennsylvania Resolutions in favor of — Plan to 
settle Bank Question — Interviews with Cabinet Offi- 
cers — Correspondence with Mr. Biddle — Details of 
Jackson's Plan for a Bank — Veto — Letter to Sen- 
tinel in Support of Jackson — Bank's Appeal to 
Coercion for Recharter — Mr. IngersoU opposes the 
Bank — Bitter Party Feeling and Proscription . .148 

CHAPTER VL 

Banking System — "Committee Powers" — "River 
Rights" — Bush-Hill Address — Convention of 1837 
— Mr. IngersoU's Course in — Education and the 

10 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Judiciary — Minority Report from Committee on Cur- 
rency and Corporations — Nominated for Congress 
— Heated Campaign — The Bank in Politics — Case 
of Mr. IngersoU's Son John — The Sub-Treasury — 
Mr. IngersoU's Early Plan for — Contested Election 
— Third Campaign, and Election to Twenty-Seventh 
Congress 185 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Ingersoll in Congress — His District — On the Ju- 
diciary Committee, and Chairman of Foreign Affairs 
— His Course generally — The Slaver)' Question — 
How the Problem presented itself in those Days — • 
The Abolitionists were Disunionists — Mr. IngersoU's 
Speech on the Twenty-First Rule — His Course on 
the Tariff — Tyler — The Sub-Treasury — General 
Jackson's Fine — Conflicts with Mr. Adams . . . 224 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Texas — Settlement from United States — In Fact inde- 
pendent of Mexico as early as 1823 — Anxiety to be 
admitted into the Union — Mr. IngersoU's Con- 
nection with Annexation as Chairman of Foreig-n 
Affairs — Extracts from his Diary — Oregon — His 
Committee again against him — Opinion of Polk 
and Buchanan — Disputes with England, and Mr. 
Webster's Course — Case of the Caroline — Mr. In- 
gersoU's Criticism of Webster's Course in — Mr. 
Webster's Scandalous Reply in the Senate — IMr. 
IngersoU's Charges of Dishonesty against Mr. Web- 
ster — Proceedings in the House — The Committee 

II 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

controlled in Mr. Webster's Interest — Minority Re- 
port — Public Dinner tendered Mr. Ingersoll — Re- 
elected to Congress by Increased Plurality — Nomi- 
nated for the French Mission — Defeated in the 
Senate — Retirement from Public Life 254 

CHAPTER IX. 

His Practice at the Bar — Characteristics as a Lawyer 
— Judge Sharswood on — Some Instances — Qualities 
as an Orator — Instances of his Manner — His De- 
nunciation of an Overbearing Judge — The John 
Sergeant Bar Meeting — Personal Appearance — 
Habits of Exercise and Diet — Dress — Eccentricity 
— His Residences — Fond of the Society of Women — 
Buoyant Spirits — Mrs. Maury — Religion — His Amer- 
icanism — Belief in True Popular Government — In- 
terest in Napoleonic History — Joseph Bonaparte — 
Earnest Advocate of Free Ships, Free Goods — 
Dechning Years — Literary Work — "Second War" 
— ' ' Recollections" — Other Works — " African 
Slavery in America" — Mr. Buchanan's Administra- 
tion — Outbreak of Secession — His Views upon the 
Civil War — Death 



Table of References 



292 
335 



12 



THE LIFE 



OF 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 



CHAPTER I. 



The Ingersoll Family — ^Jared IngersoU the Elder, Colonial 
Agent from Connecticut — The Stamp Act and the Revo- 
lution — Jared Ingersoll the Younger, a Leading Lawyer 
in Philadelphia. 

The Ingersolls of America are, I believe, all 
descended from two brothers, John and Richard 
Ingersoll, who came to Massachusetts from Bed- 
fordshire, England, in 1629. John, the ancestor of 
the branch with which I have to do, was the 
younger of the brothers, and was born in England 
in 161 5. He lived under his brother's protection 
at Salem for a time, but moved to Hartford, Con- 
necticut, after his brother's death in 1644, In 1655 
he moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, and 
about 1665 settled in Westfield, Massachusetts, 
where he apparently remained the rest of his life, 
and where he died September 3, 1684. He was 

"3 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

three times married, and had fifteen children, of 
whom thirteen were living at his death. Jonathan 
Ingersoll, his fifteenth child, and the progenitor of 
the Philadelphia branch of the family, was born 
May lo, 1 68 1, and was the child of the third wife, 
Mary Hunt; she was the daughter of Mary Web- 
ster, whose father, John Webster, was one of the 
first settlers of Hartford, and the fifth governor of 
the Colony of Connecticut. Jonathan Ingersoll 
was a joiner, and lived at Milford, Connecticut, in 
1698. He had six children, among whom was 
Jared, born June 3, 1722.' 

Jared Ingersoll graduated at Yale College in 
1742, and became a distinguished lawyer of Con- 
necticut. In 1759 ^^ '^^s sent to England as 
agent for the Colony of Connecticut, and wrote 
home some interesting letters giving his impres- 
sions of the country and of Pitt and other distin- 
guished men. He chanced to be in the House of 
Commons at the time when Colonel Barre made 
his well-known reply to Charles Townshend, and 
it is to his report that we owe the preservation of 
this brilliant burst of oratory. Townshend, in re- 
plying to Barre, had said, — 

"And now, will these American children, planted by 
our care, nourished up to strength and opulence by our 
indulgence, and protected by our arms, grudge to con- 
tribute their mite?" 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Barre, who had been the friend of Wolfe, and 
had taken part in the captures of Louisbourg and 
Quebec, arose at once and said, — 

*' They planted by YOUR care! No; your oppression 
planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny 
to a then uncultivated, unhospitable country. . . . They 
nourished up by your indulgence I They grew by your 
neglect of them. . . . They protected by your arms ! 
They have nobly taken up arms in your defence ; have 
exerted a valor, amid their constant and laborious industry, 
for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in 
blood, while its interior departments yielded all its little 
savings to your emolument. And believe me — remember 
I this day told you so — the same spirit of freedom which 
actuated that people at first will accompany them still. ..." 

In the course of his outburst, Barre applied to 
the colonists the term "sons of liberty," and all 
this Mr. Ingersoll reported and sent home. Here 
it found its way into a newspaper in New London, 
and soon spread over the country, while every 
household rang with the inspiring name, " Sons 
of Liberty." 

In common with Franklin and other colonists 
in England, Mr. Ingersoll opposed strongly the 
Stamp Act, but neither he nor his associates seem 
to have appreciated the intense feeling in the 
Colonies upon the subject. So complete, indeed, 
was their ignorance upon this point that, after the 
act's passage, Mr. Ingersoll even accepted, with 

IS 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Franklin's advice, a commission from the crown 
as Stamp-Master-General for the New England 
Colonies. With this document in his possession, 
he returned home, and arrived at Boston in 1765. 
But he soon learned that during his absence the 
spirit of opposition to the British claims had risen 
to mountain height, and that, from one end of the 
Colonies to the other, the people were determined 
not to pay the tax. 

In his own home in New Haven efforts were at 
once made to induce him to give up the office, 
and in town meeting he was " earnestly desired to 
resign his stamp office immediately." He ex- 
pressed a lawyer's doubts whether there was any 
one to resign to, and discussed the subject, but did 
not do as was desired. Soon threats were made 
of injury to him and his property, and he then 
decided to go to Hartford and submit the subject 
to the Legislature. But the people learned of his 
plan, and he had got only as far as Wethersfield 
upon his journey, in company with Governor 
Fitch, when he was met by a crowd of irregularly 
armed people, drawn up in military array, who 
were determined that the question should not be 
submitted to the Legislature. They well knew, 
what he also knew, that that body would be much 
slower to risk an open breach with the authority 
of the crown than was their own unorganized and 

irresponsible crowd or mob. In the main street of 

16 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Wethersfield, therefore, the parley was held, and 
he and the mob of his fellow-citizens discussed for 
some hours whether he should resign or not. 
Neither was convinced, but the crowd grew impa- 
tient and threatening; and at length Mr. Ingersoll, 
saying, " The cause is not worth dying for," signed 
a resignation of the office, which purported to be 
his own free act. He was then urged to swear to 
this, but refused to do so, and finally the meeting 
broke up, after he had cheered three times for 
" Liberty and Property." He is said upon this 
occasion to have been mounted upon a gray horse, 
and to have remarked that he was like Death in 
Revelation, mounted on a pale horse, with Hell 
at his heels. 

Though Mr. Ingersoll was not at any time in 
active opposition to the colonists, yet it is needless 
to say that after such an occurrence as has been 
narrated his career as a public man of distinction 
was at an end ; and it is a curious instance of how 
easily the chances of life may sometimes ruin a 
man. Separated for a long time from his country, 
and necessarily unacquainted with the state of its 
public feeling, nothing was more natural than that 
he should make his ill-starred decision to accept 
the stamp office, and a high-spirited man would 
then hesitate to throw it aside because it turned 
out to be unpopular. Possibly the most curious 
point in the matter is that in accepting the office 

2 17 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

he had acted upon the advice of Franklin, who 
deservedly ranks as an ardent supporter of the 
patriot cause. 

In 1766 Mr. Ingersoll published a pamphlet on 
the " Stamp Act," and in 1770 was appointed Ad- 
miralty Judge of the Middle District, and resided 
for some years in Philadelphia. Here he was 
looked upon with suspicion as a tory ; and he re- 
turned later to New Haven, and died there in 
August, 1 78 1. He had married Hannah Whiting, 
and had by her two children, James and Jared, 
the latter of whom was born in New Haven, Oc- 
tober 24, 1749.'' 

Jared Ingersoll the younger graduated at Yale 
College in 1766, and in 1774 was sent by his father 
to London to complete his education as a lawyer. 
There, at the Middle Temple, while the war was 
hasteninp- to its outbreak at home, he studied law 
under the great legal lights of the day, and it may 
be assumed from his later character that the years 
were to him years of hard and devoted study. He 
did not, however, confine himself exclusively to 
the study of his profession, but took an active 
interest in literature and in society, and formed 
many acquaintances. His son has written of him 
that " Mansfield, Blackstone, Chatham, Garrick, 
and other luminaries of that period were objects of 
his constant attention, and of his correspondence, 
and ever after among the pleasures of his memory." 

18 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

And Mr. Binney tells us that during the summers 
Mr. Ingersoll lived in the country, ten miles from 
his place of study, and often daily made the dis- 
tance both ways on foot. This writer also inti- 
mates that the father had sent him to London in 
part to get him away from an atmosphere where 
arms and rebellion were more talked of than law. 
Whether this be so or not, the son none the less 
espoused the war when it broke out, and left Lon- 
don for Paris about the time of the Declaration of 
Independence. He passed a year and a half in 
that capital, was kindly welcomed at Passy by his 
father's friend Franklin, and knew well Ralph 
Izard, John Julius Pringle, and other distinguished 
Americans from various parts of the country. 
His son writes that these acquaintances had a 
marked influence in freeing his mind from ex- 
clusively Eastern prejudice and in giving him feel- 
ings of a broad nationalism. 

During Mr. Ingersoll's residence in London he 
had corresponded with Joseph Reed, of Pennsyl- 
vania, who had been in London with Ingersoll's 
father during the Stamp Act days, and it seems that 
Reed had advised him to settle in Philadelphia, 
on the ground that there was then a very prom- 
ising opening there for a lawyer of talent. It was 
probably with a view to settling in this new home 
that he sailed for America in the autumn of 1778 
in an American letter of marque, which, he was 

19 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

heard to say, came much of the way under water, 
with a full press of sail, to avoid disagreeable in- 
terviews. He arrived at home towards the latter 
part of 1778, and soon moved to Philadelphia, 
where he was admitted to the bar in January, 1779, 
at the age of twenty-nine years. 

In his new home he does not seem to have re- 
ceived much aid from Mr. Reed, who had recently 
been elected to the Presidency of the State and 
rather removed from the bar. Moreover, the 
politics of Pennsylvania were then in such a con- 
dition as to render it difficult, if not impossible, 
for the President to aid his young friend. All the 
lawyers of any considerable ability. Reed wrote, 
were against the popular side ; and he warned 
young IngersoU to beware of taking much part in 
politics or disclosing his sentiments freely. But 
Mr. IngersoU needed no one's aid, and soon showed 
such capacities as placed him in time in the van 
of a bar crowded with distinguished men. Mr. 
Binney, who had been his pupil, and was later re- 
peatedly associated with him, writes that he was a 
very sound and well-read lawyer and a most con- 
summate advocate. Though his power with a 
court was very great, his special forte was with a 
jury, and the same distinguished writer regards 
him as having been " without comparison the 
most efficient manager of an important jury trial 

among all the able men who were then at the bar 

20 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

in Philadelphia." Errors he never made in the 
conduct of his cases, for care and precision in 
everything were salient points in his character, 
and he always studied his case most carefully and 
prepared elaborate briefs. During the preparation 
of these papers he would constantly interrupt his 
writing at his desk by getting up and walking 
about the office, now and then stopping and 
shaking his head, or holding out a hand, as he 
probably suggested to himself the answer of 
his opponent, and then once more resuming his 
writing. The result was a complete mastery of 
every detail of the case ; so complete, indeed, that 
the written brief seemed of no use, and he would 
but rarely refer to it at the trial, in order to re- 
fresh his memory. 

"His oratory," Mr. Binney says, "was of a very high 
order, . . . clear, earnest, logically connected, rarely or 
never rising to the highest flights, but always on the wing. 
. . . He never stumbled upon an awkward phrase, nor 
said a bitter thing, nor uttered a pointless expression, nor 
began a sentence before the thought was ready for it and 
the language for the thought. He was not voluble nor 
rapid. His words did not interfere with each other ; nor, 
in any height of excitement, did his voice bray, nor his 
arms lash the air, nor his foot explode upon the floor. 
Neither was he hesitating or slow, as if he was inquiring 
for the next word, nor monotonous, as if he was reading 
from a stereotyped memory. But, with just the proper 
tone and measure, rising sufficiently above the natural 

21 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

key of conversation to give something like air or rhythm 
to his language, and speaking as from his brain and not 
from his brief, he proceeded, with proper pauses and vari- 
ations of time, from beginning to end, without a single 
break-down or trip in word or thought. ... It was im- 
possible for any one to be more clear and intelligible in 
the whole design of his speech, and in every phrase of 
it ; and equally impossible, in any part of it, to detect an 
instance or occasion in which temper, dignity, manliness 
of carriage, or gentlemanliness of manner had been either 
forgotten or studiously remembered by him, so natural and 
habitual were those observances with him. . . . Woe be- 
tided," continues Mr. Binney, " the adversary that took a 
false position, or used an illogical argument, or misstated 
a fact against him. ... He fastened upon the mistake 
with the grasp of death, and would repeat and reiterate 
and muldply his assaults upon it, until there did not remain 
a shadow of excuse for the blunder." 

The same writer tells us that Mr. IngersoU had 
in a very marked degree a peculiarity which is not 
uncommon, and which he describes as the active 
and passive states of mind. During the latter his 
thoughts did not work rapidly, and he missed the 
bearing of points even of importance. This was 
particularly to be noticed in his hours of cold 
study without excitement; but when he was in 
any way excited, and always in court or under 
opposition, his mind flashed into activity, and every 
faculty worked in harmony. 

With such marked capacities for the duties of 
a lawyer, it was natural that Mr. IngersoU should 

22 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

devote himself mainly to the practice of his pro- 
fession, and he did labor at it most assiduously. 
He writes to his son on one occasion, as if it were 
nothing very unusual, that he had already worked 
ten hours that day, and expected to work for two 
or three more. It thus took up most of his time, 
and he did not have much left for other duties. 
During the Revolution he was once named aide- 
de-camp to the Governor during some expected 
military movements, and in 1780-81 he was a 
delegate to Congress; in 1790 he served in the 
Common Council of Philadelphia, and in 18 14-15 
was a member of the Committee of Defence of 
Philadelphia. He was also a member of the 
Convention of 1787 which framed the United 
States Constitution, and was the candidate for 
Vice-President on the Federal ticket in 181 2. 
The positions of a legal nature which he held were 
numerous. He was City Solicitor, United States 
District Attorney, Attorney-General of Pennsylva- 
nia from 1 79 1 to 1800 and from 181 1 to 18 16, and 
President Judge of the District Court of Philadel- 
phia from March, 1821, until his death. He was 
also appointed, but declined to serve, as Chief 
Judge of the United States Circuit Court for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1801. This 
was one of the appointments commonly known as 
"midnight judges." 

In politics Mr. Ingersoll was a man of moderate 

23 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

beliefs, conservative, and generally disinclined to 
change. He kept largely aloof from the burning 
political passions of his time, having no taste for 
them and disapproving them. He wrote on one 
occasion that he was a believer in a representative 
democracy, but the details of his opinions have 
not survived. An admirer of a central govern- 
ment possessing a good deal of power, he was an 
earnest advocate of the Constitution, as well as one 
of its framers, as a means of uniting the discord- 
ant elements of the country into one nation ; and, 
though he probably by no means approved the 
extreme steps of the Federalists, yet he was far 
more nearly in accord with that party than with 
the Republicans. Mr. Binney writes of him that, 
after the great " subversion in iSoi," he was rarely 
found on the side of the majority in Pennsylvania. 
Personally he was most courteous and consid- 
erate, and full of the air of good breedingr and 
manners, but rather reserved, not very fond of the 
world of society, and with but few intimates. Of 
fair height and very straight, with the dignified 
manners of an age that was nearly spent, he left 
on many the impression of an early military 
education, while some thought him cold and 
rather proud. He had, indeed, grown to man- 
hood and his character and beliefs had become 
formed before the social changes of the Revolu- 
tionary period; nor did his beliefs apparently 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

change much with the times, and he remained to 
the end a good deal tinctured with the strongly- 
marked class distinctions of what Mr. Binney 
calls the " pre-democratic age." He habitually 
wore a full suit of black, or of light brown or 
drab in the warm season, with knee-breeches and 
shoes, and adhered to hair-powder and a cue long 
after others had abandoned those picturesque but 
troublesome appendages. In his own family circle 
he was kindness itself, and, even when oppressed 
with business, would endure interruptions and 
small oppressions from his young children. 

In his latter years his financial affairs were a 
good deal straitened, partly, I think, from burdens 
he had to assume for some not very near connec- 
tions, and also from large purchases of real estate 
in unsettled regions ; and he died a poor man, 
though narrowly missing great wealth from coal 
lands. He was always a man of the purest and 
highest honor and probity, and these quahties 
seem to have been put to some severe test, known 
to Mr. Binney, but not to the world generally. He 
was a Presbyterian, and in full communion with 
that church. He had married Elizabeth Pettit, 
daughter of Colonel Charles Pettit, on December 6, 
I78i,andhad four children, — Charles Jared, Harry, 
Joseph Reed, and Edward. He died in Philadel- 
phia, October 31, 1822, leaving his widow and all 
their children, except Harry, surviving him.3 

25 



CHAPTER II. 

Birth— Boyhood and Youth — College— Political Passions 
of the Time — " Edwy and Elgiva"— Admitted to the Bar 
— Goes to Europe — Marriage — Politics — "Rights and 
Wrongs" — " Inchiquin" — Early Political Views and 
Development — I'olitics of the Period — War of 1S12 — 
Elected to the Thirteenth Congress. 

Charles Jared Ingersoll, the eldest child of 
Jared Ingersoll and Elizabeth Pettit, was born in 
Philadelphia, October 3, 1782. His earliest recol- 
lection of any public event seems to have been of 
Franklin's funeral in 1790, but I have not learned 
much of his earlier years, and even the school he 
went to is unknown. Among his schoolmates and 
the playmates of his boyish days were Philip 
Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's son ; Albanus 
Logan, the son of George Logan ; Richard Rush ; 
and George W. P. Custis, Mrs. Washington's 
grandson. Philip Hamilton — destined later to 
meet death in a duel, as his father had done — 
seems to have been an especial intimate, and young 
Ingersoll was frequently at the Hamilton house, 
both in the city and on the Germantown Road. 

On one occasion the Custis boy took him to the 
Presidential residence, to witness the ceremony of 
smoking the pipe of peace by Washington and 

26 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

some of his cabinet and some Indians ; and on 
another occasion he dined at the Presidential 
table, when there seems to have been left on his 
memory an impression of a dignity and decorum 
which were positively appalling. The grandeur 
of Washington going to church, and again going 
out to drive in his coach and six with several ser- 
vants in showy liveries, were other sights of boy- 
hood which were deeply impressed upon him. And 
he once saw him delivering an address in Congress, 
when the personal dignity and grandeur of the 
man stood out in fine relief. With the members of 
government and leaders of political events gener- 
ally Mr. IngersoU's father was well acquainted, 
and the son has left in his " Recollections" many 
interesting and instructive views of them. He has 
written that Mifflin, McKean, Dallas, Rush, and 
Logan were often at his father's house at a time 
when he was still too young to understand the 
objections they made to some of Hamilton's 
financial measures; and in another place he tells 
us that Ellsworth, Hillhouse, Baldwin, and other 
New England lights were also occasionally made 
welcome. From all these fountains of political 
knowledge he must have drunk deep. It is worthy 
of note also, as one of the facts surrounding his 
boyhood and youth, that his father kept up some 
of the New England customs, and regularly had a 

codfish dinner once a week. 

27 



\ 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

He was concerned as a mere boy in electioneer- 
ing in some way at a Congressional election, the 
date of which I have not been able to fix, and 
had vividly fixed in his memory — as almost his first 
experience of public aiTairs — the proceedings at 
the meeting held in Independence Square, July 23, 
1795, to denounce Jay's Treaty. His father, who 
had refused to serve upon the committee for the 
meeting, lived near the square, and the son wit- 
nessed the gathering of the throng, and later joined 
it with his brother and George Clymer, and listened 
with greedy delight to the first stump speech he 
had ever heard. And what a speech it was that 
impressed itself on the boy's memory ! There 
were probably other orators upon this occasion, 
but tJie speech of the evening to our trio of embryo 
statesmen was made by the well-known and highly 
respected citizen, Blair McClenachan. A man 
well on in years, full of gout, and with legs as big 
at the ankle as at the knee, he hobbled about, Mr. 
IngersoU tells us, in a very lame fashion, with the 
aid of a cane, and was helped up to the chair or 
table which took the place of a platform. Then 
he began his speech in a hoarse and jerking man- 
ner and brandishing his cane, without the smallest 
semblance of oratorical method, but with his red 
face and indignant motion all so plainly proclaim- 
ing his earnestness of purpose that his audience 

applauded him to the echo. The portion of this 

28 



1 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

speech which impressed itself deeply on young 
Ingersoll's recollection was the words, " Let us all 
join, then, fellow-citizens, and kick this d — d treaty 
to h — U !" Later he watched the crowd cross the 
square and burn the treaty in effigy before the 
doors of the British minister. 

At about this time Mr. Ingersoll was studying 
under a private tutor, Mr. Hobson,and was studying 
French with a M. La Grange, but in 1796 he matric- 
ulated as a Freshman at Princeton College, rather 
against his father's wishes, who preferred that the 
boy should wait a year or so longer. Among his 
associates here was again Richard Rush, and for 
class-mates and room-mates he had at different 
times John Forsyth and William Alston, whose 
brother Joseph married Theodosia Burr. Letters 
to his father from some of the professors show that 
they were much struck with his quickness in learn- 
ing; but he was still very young, was rather lacking 
in application, and his youthful spirits were at 
times too strong to bear the restraints of college 
discipline. His father, on the contrary, was a man 
whose very essence was method and decorum, and 
he repeatedly urged upon his son * precision in 

* Mr. Ingersoll's brother said in his latter years that 
while he was at college almost every letter he received 
from his father wound up with the words, " Remember 
the honors." 

29 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

everything and the avoidance of any explosions of 
youthful merriment. As is usual, however, the 
boy's own character had to be his main guide, and 
he went on showing marked talents, but not the 
persistent application to his studies which his 
father thought needful, and occasionally flilling 
into difficulty with the authorities. Finally, in his 
Junior year, some trouble of this kind occurred, 
and Mr, IngersoU left the college at his own re- 
quest, with a certificate that he was " under no 
collegiate censure." His father knew of the trouble 
in question, and thought the authorities had acted 
unwisely. He made the boy decide for himself 
whether to stay or ask to be dismissed. 

The three years so passed at college were very 
important ones to Mr. IngersoU as well as to the 
public affairs of the country. Not only had he 
during them fixed upon the law as his profession, 
but his mind had already shown a strong bent for 
politics, and his father wrote him quite a series of 
letters upon the Federal Constitution and ex- 
pounding parts of it. A good many of the letters 
they exchanged were in French. The political 
tempests of the day raged with fury at the college, 
and Mr. IngersoU and his father frequently corre- 
sponded upon public events. These were the 
years when the country was so near to drifting 
into open war with France, and the son evidently 
shared all the burning passions which then pre- 

30 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

vailed so generally against that country. He was 
himself a subscriber to Carey's Democratic Journal, 
but Fenno's Gazette of the United States was sent 
him by his father; and with this paper before him, 
and with the strongly Federal inclinations general 
at Princeton, it was almost unavoidable that the 
boy should be swept along with the intense patriotic 
passions of the day. He tells us how great a dis- 
appointment it was to him at the time that he was 
too young and too small for his age to wear a sword 
or an epaulet, or even the black cockade which 
many wore in their hats, at Cobbett's suggestion, 
as a mark of their anti-Gallican sympathies. 

Being thus out of college, Mr. Ingersoll studied 
under private tutors again for some years. In the 
summer of i8oo he made a trip with Joseph Alston 
in the latter's curricle as far as Boston. At New 
York they were much at the Burr house, and 
Alston engaged himself to Theodosia Burr, whom 
he shortly married. The trip was made under 
very favorable auspices, for both of the travellers 
were of the best society, and Mr. IngersoU's father 
had doubtless given them letters to many eminent 
people. Mr. Ingersoll tells us that they travelled 
in an open English curricle, attended by two black 
servants in sky-blue liveries. Some of the events 
of the trip he described in verse to his father, but 
these have, unfortunately, been lost. 

At about this time he wrote a tragedy, founded 

31 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

upon the story of Edwy and Elgiva, which was 
produced at the " New Theatre" in Philadelphia. 
This was certainly a remarkable production for a 
youth of eighteen years. It was reviewed favor- 
ably by the Portfolio, the literary authority of the 
day, which quoted from it the following verses, 
spoken by Edwy in the last act : 

" I should, methinks, the rather joy than grieve. 
The hour of retribution now draws nigh, 
And I have sworn to heav'n never to sleep 
Till I repose beneath the laurel's shade 
Or Death's dark canopy." 

A prologue and epilogue were also printed in 
the same paper, and the issue of April i8 wrote, — 

"After a short suspension of theatrical labours, the com- 
pany rose, with renovated vigour, to the performance of 
Edwy and Elgiva. This tragedy, new, American, and the 
first-born of a muse in her teens, excited great expectation, 
invited a numerous and fashionable band, and was re- 
ceived in a most urbane and candid manner. From for- 
midable rows of critics, the youthful author listened to no 
bitter or malign remarks, and 

' The bursting plaudit, and the lifted hand,' 

frequently and loudly expressed the good humour and ap- 
probation of the house." 

The theatre at which this piece was produced 
was a leading one in Philadelphia, and among the 
plays produced there at about the same time were 
" Much Ado about Nothing," " The Heir-at-Law," 

32 



I 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" The Merry Wives of Windsor," " The Point of 
Honor," " The Tempest," and " The Merchant of 
Venice." 

In the same year Mr. IngersoU contributed to 
the Portfolio (September 15) a poem entitled 
" Chiomara," founded upon the story of a German 
princess who successfully defended her honor from 
her Roman captor, and, as has already been said, 
he described in verse some events of his trip to 
Boston with Alston, but I do not know of any 
other essay of his of a poetic nature until a much 
later period of his life. He was also at the .same 
time studying law, and was admitted to the Phila- 
delphia bar on June 8, 1802, when not yet twenty 
years of age. Pie had wanted to go to South 
Carolina, to study under Mr. de Saussure, who had 
read law in Philadelphia as a student of Jared 
IngersoU, and who later became the celebrated 
Chancellor, but Mr. Ingersoli's father entirely dis- 
approved of this plan. 

Soon after his admission to the bar he went to 
Europe, going out in the same vessel with Alex- 
ander Baring, and arriving in London probably 
in July. He there joined Mr. King, the Ameri- 
can minister, — I think merely as a friend and in 
no official capacity, — and in August made a tour 
with him and his wife and a friend on the Conti- 
nent. Part of the way they travelled on a canal- 
boat drawn by horses, but generally Mr. and Mrs. 
3 II 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

King were in an English chariot and Mr. Inger- 
soU and the friend in a Flemish cabriolet, while 
a courier and a mulatto servant rode ahead on 
horses; but Mr. IngersoU very generally exchanged 
places with one of the latter, and thus travelled 
much of the distance on horseback. They visited 
Rotterdam, Amsterdam, the Hague, Antwerp, Brus- 
sels, Ghent, Liege, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, Spa, 
Frankfort, Mannheim, Basle, Geneva, Lausanne, 
and Paris. At Geneva he called with a letter of 
introduction upon Madame de Stael, in Paris upon 
the lady who figures in the X Y Z correspond- 
ence, and in England he had called upon Lord 
Erskine and upon William Cobbett. 

In Paris he found much to interest him, and of 
course had very great advantages from his associ- 
ation with Mr. King, seeing far more of French 
society than was usual with foreigners. The time 
of his visit, too, was one of importance: not only 
were the powers already very restive under the 
Peace of Amiens, but Mr. Livingston was deeply 
engaged in the negotiations which led to our 
purchase of Louisiana, — a fact, however, of 
which Mr. IngersoU knew nothing. He evidently 
made the best of his time, and saw a great deal 
which deeply impressed him, and some of which 
he reproduced in an oration many years later. 
Bonaparte he saw at the head of his troops, on 
one of the review days, surrounded by all the 

34 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

brilliant troop of his marshals, and decorating a 
soldier called from the ranks for the purpose, and 
he was deeply impressed with all the exulting and 
triumphant scenes then enacting in the new re- 
public. Shortly before he left, too, he witnessed a 
sudden and apparently causeless arrest by a file of 
soldiers, — a scene well calculated to call his mind 
back from too great admiration of the French 
system. 

Probably about the middle of November, 1802, 
he returned to England with Mr, King, and here 
again he fell upon events which seem to have 
deeply impressed him and to have helped to 
shatter that exclusive admiration for English gov- 
ernment in which he had probably been educated. 
Just about the time of his return. Colonel Des- 
pard * was arrested and tried, and later executed, 
under the charge of a treasonable plot, of which a 
modern British authority has said, "The whole 

* In a speech in the Pennsylvania Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1837, Mr. IngersoU narrated how horrified he 
was, upon saying to Mr. King that he thought it very hard 
that Colonel Despard should be executed for treason upon 
such light proof as had been brought against him, to hear 
Mr. King answer, " My dear young friend, you know very 
little of England, and have but an imperfect idea of the 
power of the crown, if you suppose that, if the king de- 
sired this man's death, Lord Ellenborough would not carry 
his wish into effect." (Debates, vol. iv. p. 423.) 

35 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

plan is so ridiculous that it cannot be regarded 
seriously." The real essence of his crime seems 
to have consisted in some expressions of approval 
of Jacobin sentiments. In England, again, Mr. 
IngersoU had very great advantages from his con- 
nection with Mr. King, and was present at the 
final public dinner given that gentleman upon his 
departure. On May 20, 1803, they embarked at 
Southampton on the John Morgan for New York, 
where they arrived on July i, bringing with them 
the first news of the Louisiana treaty as well as of 
the renewal of hostilities in Europe."* 

I have been able to learn but little of Mr. In- 
gersoU during the two years following his return 
to America, and presume that his time was pretty 
closely devoted to the study and practice of his 
profession. In December of 1803 he wrote to 
Mr. King,— 

"I am jogging on my professional path. My father 
nudges me along, and the Governor has given me a pub- 
hck room adjoining the Court, where I have estabUshed 
my desk and arm-chair, so that they say I do tolerably 
well. . . . Our State rulers threaten to lop away that ex- 
crescence on civiUzation, the bar ; and Counsellor Inger- 
soU declares he'll go to New York. All the eminent 
lawyers have their eyes on one city or another, to remove 
to in case of extremes." 

The last sentence refers, of course, to the great 
public dissatisfaction then and for a number of 

36 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

years later prevailing in Pennsylvania against the 
lawyers and the judicial system generally, and 
which found expression in numerous laws intended 
to lessen the need for a bar and to make " each 
man his own lawyer." Though it appears clear 
that there was very sound reason for this dissatis- 
faction, there can equally be no doubt that the in- 
tending reformers aimed at impossibilities, and that 
the reform soon became largely the sport of poli- 
ticians. During the early years of the century 
politics generally raged at white heat in Philadel- 
phia, and the triumph of the republican masses 
was gall and wormwood to the respectable ele- 
ment, which had formerly been in absolute con- 
trol. Duane was the leader on the Republican 
side, and in his Aurora advocated the most 
ultra measures and indulged in coarse and virulent 
abuse of his opponents. These, on the other 
hand, soon at bay and in the position of uncom- 
promising haters of the whole development of 
public affairs in their own country, were quickly 
left behind, and became mere unceasing scolders 
at every governmental step. Even the mild Den- 
nie, a man of a literary turn of mind and quite 
unfit for the strife of public affairs, was unable to 
restrain himself from reviling the triumphant de- 
mocracy, and indulged in his Portfolio — nicknamed 
" Portable Foolery" by the Aurora — in an abuse 
of his opponents which was at times quite as 

37 



X 



yr 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

ribald as theirs. He was indicted for libel in 1803 
for some denunciations of democratic government, 
and after his acquittal defined democracy in the 
^ V Portfolio^ as ** a fiend more horrible than any 
that the imagination of the classical poets ever 
conjured up from the vasty deep of their Pagan 
Hell." 

These facts are mentioned here because they 
show the temper of the times in which Mr. Inger- 
soll passed his early years ; and there can, more- 
over, be no doubt that the large majority of the 
associates whom he acquired from his father and 
from his position in society were members of the 
defeated and discomfited Federalists, and partook 
to a large degree of the opinion quoted from 
Dennie ; but the whole subject of the origin and 
growth of Mr. Ingersoll's political beliefs will be 
considered later. 

On October 18, 1804, he was married to Mary 
Wilcocks, daughter of Alexander Wilcocks and 
Mary Chew. He announced this event to Mr. 
and Mrs. King on October 7, in pursuance of a 
promise long before given to the latter, and added, 
" I am a very young man, and a very poor one, 
but I hope you won't think I am committing a 
rash act." Were it not that he was thus con- 
cerned in matrimony in the autumn of 1804, I 
should have assumed that he was one of the 
Philadelphia coterie whom alone Moore excepted 

38 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

from his coarse abuse of everything American. 
Moore was in Philadelphia during that autumn, 
and was very intimate with Dennie and his friends ; 
and, as Mr. IngersoU at least had been a friend of 
Dennie, it is more than likely that he was in part 
referred to in these well-known lines : 

' ' Yet, yet forgive me, oh you sacred few, 
Whom late by Delaware's green banks I knew ; 
Whom, known and lov'd through many a social eve, 
'Twas bliss to live with, and 'twas pain to leave. 
Not with more joy the lonely exile scann'd 
The writing traced upon the desert sand. 
Where his lone breast but little hop'd to find 
One trace of life, one stamp of human kind, 
Than did I hail the pure, th' enlightened zeal, 
The strength to reason and the warmth to feel, 
The manly polish and the illumin'd taste, 
Which, — 'mid the melancholy, heartless waste 
My foot has travers'd, — oh you sacred few ! 
I found by Delaware's green banks with you." 

From the time of Mr. Ingersoll's marriage he 
doubtless devoted himself assiduously to the prac- 
tice of his profession. His father's financial affairs 
were presumably already somewhat involved, 
while he himself soon had a growing family, and 
was doubtless anxious for all the income he could 
obtain. He seems, however, for a much longer 
period than most men to have been of an ex- 
tremely youthful appearance, a fact which would 






CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of course not aid him with clients. So far as I 
have been able to learn, he had his first case in 
the State Supreme Court in 1806, and the year 
before that (November 7, 1805) had been ap- 
pointed Clerk of the Orphans' Court^ by Governor 
McKean. 

This appointment indicates that he maintained 
his interest in public affairs, and the same thing 
is shown by another event of a couple of years 
later, which is a striking instance of the danger of 
unguarded expressions in the heat of conversation. 
One day in June, 1807, in the area in front of the 
State-House, he met John Barker, the sheriff, and 
Mr. Jonathan Smith, and fell to talking politics. 
Barker, it seems, was a rather violent person, and 
becfan to denounce the tories of the Revolution 
in the strongest language. As Mr. Ingersoll's 
grandfather and his wife's father had been 
strongly tinged with toryism, he took up the de- 
fence, and at length, in the heat of discussion, said, 
*' Had I been a man during the Revolution, I 
should have been a tory ; many of the best men in 
the country were so then ; many of our most ex- 
emplary citizens now sided with the mother 
country at that ciisis." These unguarded words, 
uttered in private conversation in a heated argu- 
ment, soon found their way into the Democratic 
Press, with just variation enough to make them 

much worse. Mr. IngersoU immediately called 

40 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

upon the editor, John Binns, for his authority, 
but was denied the information. He was next 
assured most positively by the two gentlemen to 
whom he had made the remark that they had 
not repeated it; and he then wrote a letter to 
the Press, correcting the statement made in it, 
and giving the true version of what he had 
said. To this Binns replied in his paper, and 
expressed the opinion that Mr. Ingersoll had 
" forever deprived himself of the suffrages of 
his fellow-citizens ;" and a correspondent of 
the Press called upon Governor McKean to 
remove him from office for his toryism. Nor was 
this the end of it ; as much as thirty years later 
this hasty expression and erroneous judgment 
of what would have been his actions in other 
times was vamped up against him in heated cam- 
paigns, and he was obliged to go into explana- 
tions of it.7 

In November, 1808, he published a pamphlet 
entitled "A View of the Rights and Wrongs, 
Power and Policy, of the United States of Amer- 
ica ;" and here he is found for the first time start- 
ing out on his own line of thought, unbiassed by 
the training derived from his father or by the 
opinions usually held in the circles in which he 
moved in Philadelphia. He hastened to announce 
the appearance of this publication in the following 
letter to Mr. Rufus King: 

41 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" Philadelphia 3 December, 1808. 

" My dear Sir 

" One thing or another has prevented my writing to you 
for the last few days, or I would have given you due notice 
of the appearance in New York of a certain formidable 
pamphlet which perhaps has fallen in your way unanointed, 
unannealed, & before I had an opportunity of softening 
its introduction. There is no man alive of whose good 
opinion I am more ambitious than yours — and when I 
publish sentiments differing from yours, on subjects with 
which you are so intimately and I so little acquainted, I 
look forward to their reception by you, with something 
very like the feelings of a naughty boy when about to 
appear before his master. If I did not suppose your 
indulgence equal to your knowledge and penetration I 
should tremble for my pamphlet in your hands. Perhaps 
you have not seen it. If not, let me pray you to prepare 
for politics you do not admire, sentiments you can not 
concur in, arguments you consider false and positions 
wholly untenable. If your kindness for me has induced 
you to read it, believe that I thought myself right, and the 
same kindness will make the apology for my errors. — 
Ever since I had the pleasure of being with you in 1802 I 
have entertained the same ideas on these subjects — and I 
hope that their publication by a federalist will be received 
not as evidence of his abandonment of his party, but of 
his attachment to his country before his party. I do 
regard the conduct of England toward the U. S. as un- 
just & unwise, and the attachment of some men here 
to English policy and measures as unwarrantable and 
strained. Since the affairs of Pearce and the Chesapeake 
I am one of those who hold that government ought to be 
maintained, and in the absence of all other aid in print, 

42 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

but what is drawn from those foul sources the newspapers, 
I have ventured to support and applaud their conduct, 
and to recommend it to their fellow citizens in the oppo- 
sition. ... It would give me infinite satisfaction to 
know that I am honored with your approbation. It was 
my intention to have forwarded you a copy of my pam- 
phlet, but the demand at first exceeded the printer's 
supply. . . ." 

The pamphlet was principally a review of the 
decrees of the great powers upon the subject of 
neutral commerce, and, though its tone was mod- 
erate and fair, took decidedly the anti-English 
view which was maintained by the Republican 
party. It was, moreover, filled with a spirit of 
just pride in his own country, and criticised the 
prevalent tendency to admire everything English 
at the expense of America. Even the recognized 
literary ruler of the time, whose pupil he had him- 
self been to a certain extent, was pointedly referred 
to for this fliult in the following words : 

"There is a class of cognoscenti among us, whose de- 
light it is to decry what are stigmatized as Columbian 
effusions, and to extol every spawn, no matter how poor 
and contemptible, from the presses of England. At the 
head of this sect is a gentleman, whose elegant acquire- 
ments, amiable disposition, and masterly pen, are alike 
misplaced in the occupation to which he too often stoops, 
of attempting to ridicule the dialect and customs of his 
country. If they were as coarse and peculiar as the 
perusal of English magazines, and the tattle of English 

43 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

itineraries may have persuaded him they are, he should 
at least chuse gentler methods of correction. The rod is 
an instrument little used in this free country ; and if the 
English were as worthy of imitation in their literary walks 
as Mr. Dennie imagines them, we are not to be lashed 
into their idioms and orthography." 

This pamphlet was the first effort of any Ameri- 
can to write a consecutive account of the matters 
treated, and showed a degree of originality which 
will be found exemplified more than once again 
in Mr. Ingersoll's career. The Aurora noticed it 
favorably, and it is to be presumed that it reflected 
marked credit upon its author, and contributed in 
no small degree to his entrance upon a public 
career. 

About two years later (January, 1811) he pub- 
lished " Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters," in which 
he again defended the American character, and 
inculcated a high degree of national self-respect 
and admiration. This book, like many others of 
great note in their day, has not had the permanent 
fame its merits deserve, for its interest was neces- 
sarily transient, and died out when the purpose 
with which it was written was accomplished. But 
it was the very first American book written with 
this definite purpose, and that dared to speak 
openly in favor of our country, and did not cringe 
to foreign ideas and criticisms. And not only did 
it not cringe, but it boldly asserted the superiority 

44 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of the American character in many particulars. 
How strangely different, and how remarkable, 
therefore, was this view from that held by all 
the acknowledged literary authorities in Mr. In- 
gersoU's own home and throughout the country ! 
A recent writer has well said ^ that the then inso- 
lence of Great Britain had upon Dennie and his 
associates the effect of coercing them into " timid 
imitation and servility," while some others it 
" stung into violent hatred or sullen antagonism," 
Upon Mr. IngersoU its effect was quite different, 
for, while indulging in no petulant expressions 
of hatred or antagonism to other nations, he told 
his countrymen that they were in general the 
equals of other peoples, and pointed out some re- 
spects in which they were the superiors of any. 
And this was the work of a man not yet thirty, 
and who had been a pupil of Dennie, and had 
lived his life in the social atmosphere then prev- 
alent in the high society circles of Philadelphia. 
It is difficult to understand how so young a man 
came to such independence of thought; but in a 
letter to Mr. Madison, announcing himself as the 
author of the work, he wrote that " want of self- 
respect, an unjust self-appreciation, has always 
struck me, since my return from Europe, as a 
defect in the American people." He contributed 
what he could in this small work to correct this 
error, and to put the country, as he wrote, " in 

45 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

good humor with itself, by endeavoring to expose 
the prejudices that prevent its proper estimation." 
Though probably to-day known to but few, " In- 
chiquin" was very widely read in its day, and was 
undoubtedly an important contribution to the de- 
velopment of the American character. A sketch 
of Mr. IngersoU in the Democratic Rcviezv of 
October, 1839, speaks of the work as follows, and 
probably represents * his own feelings about it : 

" It is difficult at present to appreciate the independence 
which such a work then required. The United States 
were yet British in almost every thing except government, 
in which, too, the Federal party desired them to remain, 
without a spark of American self-sufficiency. A declara- 
tion of literary, social, and moral independence was almost 
as bold a stroke as the great declaration of political inde- 
pendence, ventured in 1776, which accomplished not 
much more than mere political severance. Not only was 
every thing and almost every thought colonial, but a 
large party insisted that they ought to be. To deny this 
Federal dogma — the idolatry of English every thing — was 
heresy, causing, if not physical, at any rate social and 
political dissolution in all the tortures of contumehous ex- 
clusion from respect. Mr. IngersoU led a forlorn hope in 
the desperate encounter with this deep-rooted prejudice. 



* I feel satisfied, from internal evidence as well as from 
probabihty, that this sketch passed under Mr. IngersoU's 
eye before pubhcation, and I shall often use it upon this 

belief. 

46 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

but has lived to see it considerably dislodged and com- 
pletely rebuked." 

" Inchiquin" was at first published anonymously, 
and consists of a series of letters supposed to be 
written between an Irish Jesuit (Inchiquin) ban- 
ished from Great Britain and travelling in this 
countryj and some friends abroad. The style 
is very clear and vigorous, and the author's pur- 
pose is well led up to by some letters from Eu- 
rope to Inchiquin, in which admirable touches 
of national prejudice are given, while the letters 
from Washington are full of spirited accounts of 
the embryo capital and of the tendencies of Ameri- 
can literature and character. The Aurora found 
nothing in it to admire, but the Portfolio— the Amer- 
ican literary authority of the day — contained a 
highly favorable review ; while, on the other hand, 
the British Quarterly Revieiv attacked it, and made 
its attack the vehicle of a truly scurrilous article on 
the American character. Those who do not ap- 
preciate the feeling of the English to this country 
at that time might do well to consult this article, 
which was thought to be the work of Southey.^ 
It is redolent of the swaggering insolence of the 
bully, while the stupid gullibility of one who wants 
to believe everything bad is also strikingly con- 
spicuous. Any false or garbled tale of a scribbling 
traveller on our frontier is gulped down whole and 
becomes typical of the American character. Ac- 

47 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

cording to it, " gouging" is almost an amusement, 
boys are constantly to be seen in the streets in a 
beastly state of intoxication, and negresses in the 
South have waited at table absolutely naked upon 
their master and his daughters. So scandalous 
was the article that it soon called forth replies. 
The first of these was written by Timothy Dwight, 
but was shamefully sectional, in accordance with 
the then tendency of everything in New England ; 
and J. K. Paulding took up the defence of the 
American side against both the Quarterly Review 
and Dwight. Upon his pamphlet, which paid the 
Quarterly back in some of its own coin, the subject 
seems to have rested. 

" Inchiquin" had not been published a year be- 
fore Mr, IngersoU was nominated on the Repub- 
lican ticket for the State Assembly ; and it will be 
necessary here to examine how he came to hold 
the opinions which he held by that time and con- 
tinued to maintain until his death. As a boy he had 
of course merely taken the opinions of his elders, 
and he tells us that he was brought up to revere 
Washington and admire Hamilton. That his father 
was a mild Federalist has been said, and the views 
derived from his instructions controlled him until 
after he left college. He was at this time not 
quite seventeen years old, however, and of course 
had as yet no opinions of his own. I judge from 
some remarks of his in Congress that he was 

4S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

guided by his father's opinions until his visit to 
Europe, and he was evidently an opponent of Jeffer- 
son's administration. Some deep impression seems 
to have been made upon his political views in 
Europe ; he referred at a later date to the intense 
exultation then prevailing at Paris over Bona- 
parte's earlier victories and the many early tri- 
umphs of the French republic, and was evidently 
deeply impressed there with the " revolutionary 
rush of thought" which the transcending events 
of the time swept over the minds of many. When 
he came home, parties in his own country were 
largely distinguished by their,_sympathy with one 
or other of the great European contestants ; and 
the opinions he had conceived in Europe would 
unavoidably lead to his gradual separation from 
the political set he had been brought up with. 
Moreover, there was the large element of innate 
belief and feelings which plays so great a part in 
determining political opinion. Mr, Ingersoll was 
a democrat at heart and a believer in the capa- 
bility of the masses to govern, and this led un- 
avoidably, in time, to his leaving the Federalists, 
with whom he had been brought up and had for 
some years acted, and joining the Jeffersonian 
party. 

It is a great mistake to suppose, as many do, 
that democratic government sprang suddenly into 
the control of this country with the Revolution. 
4 49 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

The truth is far otherwise. Before the Revolution 
class distinctions were very clearly marked, and 
the " gentry" of the colonial days constituted a 
true aristocracy, and were to a large extent the 
governing class in most or all of the Colonies; 
nor did they by any means voluntarily give up the 
large powers they had possessed in public affairs. 
It is said that in Philadelphia, during the last few 
years of the century, a toast to " Our King in Eng- 
land," made half in jest and half in earnest, was a 
common occurrence; and it cannot be doubted 
that for many years after the war was over the 
struggle of the descendants of the gentry to hold 
on to their powers was an important element in 
our politics. These men thought that the essen- 
tial foundations of society were being undermined, 
as they saw the democratic element gain the upper 
hand over them. They undoubtedly thought it 
desirable to have a class in the community en- 
dowed with many of the functions of an aristoc- 
racy. In their view, the class to which they 
belonged, the opulent and well-born, those having 
a " stand in society," were entitled to special privi- 
leges and constituted of right a separate order; 
and it was to be desired that they should unite 
and form a solid bulwark against the less favored 
many. Those holding these views adhered almost 
to a man to the Federalist party, and fought to 
the death the theories of popular government 

so 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

which were carried out by Jefferson and his party. 
The old FederaHsts had undoubtedly an incurable 
disbelief in the masses, and would gladly have 
deprived them of influence upon pubhc affairs. 
The proof of all this is to be found in a thousand 
touches in the correspondence and writings of 
leading members of that party, — far too numerous 
and scattered to reproduce here, — but is well typi- 
fied in Ames's distinct expression in favor of 
" separate orders in the state," and in the effort in 
1787 to base the Senate upon life-tenure, and to 
compose it of members who, as Gouverneur Morris 
said, "must have great personal property; must 
have the aristocratic spirit; must love to lord it 
through pride." A political orator said in Phila- 
delphia in the early years of the century, with 
what was then substantial accuracy,'" — 

"In truth, there are but two names in our lanjruasre 
which designate the principles and views of the two par- 
ties. I mean the words democrats and aristocrats — the 
friends of the rights of the many and the advocates of a 
privileged few." 

This sharp distinction then existing between the 
parties is no longer to be found, because in the 
lapse of years a vast deal of what the then Repub- 
licans contended for has become fixed as a part 
of our system, but the impartial historian of the 
future will undoubtedly recognize that the distinc- 

51 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL' 

tion in question — which still divides individuals — 
did then divide the two great parties and was very 
sharply defined. A man, therefore, who had con- 
fidence in the political capacity of the masses 
would necessarily leave the Federalist party in 
time ; but it must have been a severe task to one 
who lived in Philadelphia, and whose associations 
were with the element which had formerly gov- 
erned there. Like all aristocracies deprived of 
their power, this one only grew more firm in its 
beliefs by defeat, and remained blindly unconscious 
that the world had gone on and left it behind. 
First defeated in 1776 at the time of the overthrow 
of Dickinson and the moderates, the Pennsylvania 
aristocracy was absolutely crushed only by the 
election of Snyder as Governor in 1808; but it 
still had for many years a controlling voice in the 
highest social stratum of Philadelphia. And there 
is no doubt that it looked upon any one as hope- 
lessly bad and to a considerable extent exiled 
him who ventured in any way to give aid or coun- 
tenance to the onward surge of the democratic 
masses. 

It is difficult to picture this state of feeling, 
and only a few touches can be given, from which 
the reader must for himself construct an idea of 
the beliefs and sentiments prevailing among the 
dethroned and decaying aristocracy. We are, 
for example, told that when the " Pennsylvania 

52 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Dutchman" Snyder, who was entirely ignorant of 
Latin and Greek, was nominated for Governor in 
1808 against the Hon. James Ross, the pol- 
ished gentleman and classical scholar, the city 
aristocracy merely laughed in derision, and was 
only awakened by Snyder's triumphant election 
to the consciousness that it was possible in the 
nature of things for a country store-keeper and 
farmer to be chosen Governor in preference to 
an " Hon." ex-Senator of the United States and 
member of the privileged classes. And the good 
Dr. Rush, whose associations were with this same 
city aristocracy, wrote his son Richard in 18 12, 
warning him that he was suspected by the " citi- 
zens of Philadelphia" of writing for Binns's paper 
(which, with the Aurora, was then the leading 
Democratic paper of the city), and telling him 
that a reference to him by Bronson (the editor of 
the Gasette of the United States) had " spread a 
gloom over the whole family." The doctor's letter 
shows that in his mind a few old families composed 
the citizens of Philadelphia, and the great masses 
of republicans were as much forgotten or ignored 
by him as if they had not existed. And Binns 
tells a pregnant story of how the old-time aristo- 
cratic directors of the Bank of Pennsylvania had 
expected a scene and been prepared for it, when the 
" notorious John Binns" was elected by the Legis- 
lature a member of the board in the earlier days 

53 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of Democratic ascendancy," One can feel, in 
view of such instances of ingrained prejudice, that 
there is a world of meaning in the expressions 
used by Mr. Bmney, when he speaks of the " great 
subversion in i8oi" and of the " predemocratic 
age," or in that already quoted above from a 
sketch of Mr. Ingersoll, which tells us how de- 
nial of the city aristocracy's political dogmas 
was " heresy, causing, if not physical, at any rate 
social and political dissolution in all the tortures 
of contumelious exclusion from respect." 

It was against such prejudices as these, enter- 
tained well-nigh by all those with whom his lot 
in life was cast, that Mr. Ingersoll had to contend, 
in common with the others who, like him, had an 
ingrained belief in the new gospel of popular gov- 
ernment. Richard Rush had the same battle to 
go through with, and his letters show how dis- 
gusted he was with the atmosphere about him in 
Philadelphia and how anxious to move away from 
it. Binns tells a story '^ of the difficulty he and 
Snyder had even to discover any Democratic law- 
yer whom they could appoint Attorney-General ; 
and there can be no doubt that Mr. Ingersoll, Mr. 
Rush, and the few who shared their opinions had 
to endure the breaking up of numerous friendships, 
and went about as marked men, as long as the 
older generation survived ; nor did it end then ; 
in Mr. IngersoU's case, at least, though he was 

54 



CHARLES JAE.ED INGERSOLL 

much liked by many, yet there was ahvays a sub- 
stratum remaining of dislike to him among a very 
large class, and he was accused of deserting the 
ranks of society to which he had been born. 

The politics of Philadelphia * in the early years 
of the century were very confused and have not 
been much studied, and it has been difficult to 
learn in just what way Mr. Ingersoll was first 
launched upon his political career. It has been 
seen that he was appointed Clerk of the Orphans' 
Court by Governor McKean in 1805. McKean 
had been triumphantly elected Governor by the 
Republicans for the first time in 1799, — one year 
before Mr. Jefferson's election as President, — but 
his course had not satisfied Duane, Leib, and other 
extreme members of the party. He was, however, 
re-elected with their aid in 1802, but in 1805 they 
broke from him, nominated Snyder, and advocated 
a constitutional convention ; the moderate Repub- 
licans, headed by Dallas, then formed the Society 
of Constitutional Republicans opposed to the con- 
vention, nominated McKean, and appealed to all 
citizens for their support. The Federalists united 



* I tried for a long time to find the details of Mr. Inger- 
soll' s entrance into politics, but without success. The 
material found in this effort was used in writing an article 
on " Pennsylvania Politics Early in this Century," printed 
in the Permsylvania Magazine, vol. xvii. p. 462. 

55 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

with them, and McKean was re-elected after a 
bitter canvass. It may safely be assumed from 
Mr, Ingersoll's appointment following upon this 
election that he had acted with the Constitutional 
Republicans, or " Quids," or "Third Party Men," 
as they were variously called. But he was not at 
this time a Republican, Immediately after the 
success of the Quids, a special election was held 
to fill a vacancy in a State office, and the Consti- 
tutionalists broke to pieces at once, their numerous 
factions making as many nominations for the 
office. In these factional troubles, Mr. Ingersoll 
was one of a committee of " Friends of the Con- 
stitution" who endorsed John Hallowell, who had 
already been put in nomination by Federalists. 
This is the first step in practical politics in which 
I have found him engaged. The following two 
letters from him to Mr. King may serve to show a 
little of the atmosphere in which he was living : 

" Philadelphia, October 8, 1809. 
"My dear Sir, — Upon looking over my letter files, I 
find that our correspondence has been at a stand ever 
since last December — which indeed it might well be for 
anything I have to communicate— except the assurances 
which I feel it almost a duty and quite a pleasure to 
reiterate of the constant regard I bear to you and your 
family. Our foreign relations and domestic politics, tho' 
abundantly strange, have long ceased to be interesting. 
Nothing but perplexities abroad — nothing but democracy 

56 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

at home — and tho' it is my misfortune not to coincide in 
opinion witli you as to the root or remedy of our foreign 
evils, yet I am sure we concur equally in deploring them, 
and in deprecating that languid internal system which 
endures and protracts them. I cannot but believe, per- 
haps merely because I hope, that Mr. Madison will display 
a more manly and magnanimous pohcy than either Adams 
or Jefferson, and that the time is not far distant, when, if 
we are not rescued from embarrassments, we shall at least 
rise from the political palsy under which we are groaning 
at present into something hke national action and dignity. 
Perhaps the non-ratificadon of Mr. Erskine's adjustment, 
which we have all so much regretted, may be the means 
of more benefit than its perfecdon would have been — for 
if, as it is confidently said, we are to have a treaty or an 
accommodation with France, owing to the threatenings of 
a rupture with England, I should not despair of some sort 
of settlement with the latter, notwithstanding the good 
understanding between our government and the French. 
I am told that the commercial speculations which were 
adventured during the short interval that followed the 
proclamation, will generally terminate most ruinously, and 
that before the next spring a scene of great distress will be 
exhibited among the merchants. — If the administradon 
had not been supplied from this temporary source with 
revenue, the public coffers must have been as empty as 
the private. But I suppose this resort, so unfortunate to 
the country, has furnished them with an immediate sup- 
port. How long it may last is another question. In New 
York you are preparing, I suppose, for the next election, 
with some prospect of federal success. In Pennsylvania 
we have at last, I trust, reached the nadir of factious 
degradation. For two years to come the great quesUon, 

57 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

about which the passions of the good people of this State 
are to be beat up, is whether a fool or a rascal is the fittest 
governor. Gov' Snyder, the actual incumbent, tho' 
hardly warm in his place, has already shown such utter 
incapacity that his partizans are ashamed of him, and Dr. 
Leib is making violent efforts to pull him down, no doubt 
with a design of succeeding him. This controversy is of 
too much importance to permit such minor considerations 
as canals turnpikes and internal improvements to disturb 
its discussions, and they will have little chance of legisla- 
tive attention till that is settled. Next Tuesday will deter- 
mine which way the popular scales preponderate. I am 
inclined to believe the odds heavy against the reigning 
executive. Col. Duane with the influence of the Aurora 
declares, toto ccclo, for his friend Leib — and he is a host 
irresistible. In our part of the State there is no question 
of Leib's triumph. To the westward probably Snyder is 
not yet so unpopular. From the excessive agitation of 
parties among us, I am willing to anticipate a reformation 
at no very remote period, for the people, tho' instigated to 
intemperate actions by the unlicensed provocations of 
incendiary presses, which are on all sides equally scan- 
dalous, are in the main certainly disposed to quiet and 
propriety. In New York you are a different community — 
more respectable — less influenced by newspapers — better 
governed — and in all respects more enviably circum- 
stanced. Your partizans are entitled to lead from their 
talents, whatever may be their principles or conduct. 
Your laws are administered justly — your internal improve- 
ments are never neglected whoever rules. The ablest are 
the first men of all your parties. Whereas we are so deep 
in the slough of faction that the best men of any party are 
never the most prominent. ..." 

5S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" Philadelphia 27 March 1810. 

"My dear Sir, — . . . We had a grand imperial fete 
last night in our neighbourhood, which had like to have 
been turned into a republican auto-da-fe — M. & Mde de 
Daschkoff, to do honor to the anniversary of their master's 
coronation, invited one third of Philadelphia to a ball, and 
to give the greater eclat, the front of the house was illumi- 
nated and an emblematic transparency exhibited from one 
of the windows, on which among other things, one of the 
most prominent was a crown ; a crowd of vagabond boys 
were collected about the door the whole evening but the 
constables who mounted guard — our gens d'armes — easily 
kept them in order. Just however as the Company were 
descending to supper, word was brought that a mob of 
more magnitude, with a naval officer at their head, in full 
uniform and armed cap-a-pie, were making regular ad- 
vances and demanded that the crown should be pulled 
down — a bas la couronne. Mr. Alleyne Smith, of Russian 
memory, and several others went out and endeavoured to 
explain to the gentlemen in the mud that the transparency 
was intended to do them honor — that one ship was sailing 
into Petersburg, another into Archangel and so on — but 
all in vain — the crown must come down — and it was not 
true that the ship was going into port, for her sails were 
aback — a mistake it seems, the painter very innocently 
ignorant of setting sails, had made in the drawing. In 
the mean while the Ladies were seated to a very good 
supper, the door was kept fast, and we did as well as it 
was possible in a besieged place, with plenty of provisions. 
The result of the parley was that finding the beleaguerers 
inexorable the odious diadem should be removed. Accord- 
ingly Mr. Daschkoff himself with four others clambered 
up into the window and were surrendering as fast as they 

59 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

could, when the officer, who to the disgrace of the country- 
proves to be a son of Gen. Hand of Lancaster and a Doctor 
in the navy — fired two pistols in quick succession, the ball 
from one of which passed thro' the window where there 
were five persons, by great good fortune without doing 
any personal harm. The ball was found and handed 
about the rooms afterwards, among the rest I had it in my 
hands. The mob shouted victory and marched off. This 
was, I think a scene at the same time the most disgraceful 
& ridiculous that ever occurred in this peaceable town. 
Our police is so extremely bad, that I have no doubt if 
the Mayor of the City had been acquainted with the affair 
he would have been the principal rioter. ..." 

Early in the year 1807, John Binns had come to 
Philadelphia and established a new Republican 
paper, the Democratic Press, which was destined 
to play an important part in Pennsylvania politics 
for many years. Binns was soon engaged in 
bitter conflict with Duane and the Aurora, and for 
some years after 1808 was undoubtedly the lead- 
ing factor in the Republican politics of the State, 
wresting from Duane the position of leader which 
he had formerly held. It has already been seen 
that at about this time Mr. IngersoU published 
works which led him into prominence and which 
show that upon the most vital questions of the 
day he then held the views maintained by the 
Republican party. He was at the time of the 
publication of " Rights and Wrongs" only twenty- 
six years of age, so that his early maturity found 

60 



CHAE.LES JARED INGERSOLL 

him very far away from the opinions which he had 
been taught, and about ready to act in all things 
■with the party to which he adhered all the rest of 
his life. It is likely that he soon had political 
aspirations, for a man of his temperament taking 
the interest in public affairs shown by his writings 
can hardly have been free from them. But serious 
difficulties stood in his way. With Duane and 
the Aurora he must have been entirely hostile, 
and with Binns he had had a serious falling out 
through the " Would-have-been-a-tory" tale. I 
judge that, until the obstacle growing out of this 
was removed, he could not possibly have suc- 
ceeded in politics. But the opinions advocated in 
" Rights and Wrongs" must have appealed strongly 
to Binns, and " Inchiquin" was favorably reviewed 
in his Democratic Press soon after its anonymous 
publication, and early in March that paper ap- 
peared to be aware,'3 in advance of general knowl- 
edge of the fact, that Mr. Ingersoll was in reality 
Inchiquin, I suppose that these writings had 
soon convinced Binns that he had made much out 
of nothing in the tory tale. 

Moreover, during these years the course of 
public events was such that all minor differences 
were merged among men united in opinion on the 
main issue of the day. The great question was 
how to meet the continual and increasing outrages 
upon American commerce. The youth of the 

6i 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Republican party grew more and more to favor 
war against England, and this view was heartily- 
supported by Mr. Ingersoll. As early as 1807, at 
the time of the attack upon the Chesapeake, he 
had favored war, and thought the country could 
be united upon it; and, though he supported the 
restrictive measures of the following years, he was 
apparently always of the opinion that war alone 
could settle the difficulty. In the course of a 
few years the youth of the Republicans grew to 
more power in the party's councils, and the War- 
Hawks soon came to control its destinies. The 
eager spirits and strong wills of Clay, Cheves, 
Grundy, Lowndes, Calhoun, and the rest were not 
to be controlled, and in this band of hot-headed 
youth, who boldly plunged an infant and a not 
united country into war with one of the two giant 
contestants of the day, was undoubtedly to be 
found Mr. Ingersoll. Their action was audacious, 
and maybe foolhardy, but the provocation had 
been tremendous, and the results of the war 
justified their audacity. 

I presume that Mr. IngersoU's writings and his 
advocacy of the war led to a reconciliation with 
Binns, and it was no doubt with his approval that 
he was nominated for the Assembly in 181 1 on 
the Republican ticket. Though the State gener- 
ally went Republican, he was defeated with the 

rest of the ticket in the city and county of Phila- 

62 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

delphia, owing to the factional troubles between 
Binns and Duane. In March of the next year he 
was appointed by Governor Snyder one of the 
three Commissioners of Insolvents ; but the law 
creating the office was repealed, except as to 
pending cases, the same year, and was soon held 
to be unconstitutional. He had been removed by 
Snyder from the clerkship of the Orphans' Court 
early in 1809, and John L. Leib appointed in his 
place.''* 

It has been asserted by some writers that Mr. 
Madison was forced by Clay and others to declare 
for war against England as a condition precedent 
to his renomination ; and although the charge in 
this breadth lacks evidence to sustain it, there 
can be little doubt that his own peaceable nature 
would have been much slower in reaching that 
determination but for the influence of the strong 
wills and opinions of Clay and other hot-headed 
young War-Hawks. Binns writes that in the 
spring of 1812 he visited Washington with the 
view of ascertaining the plans of the administra- 
tion upon this subject, and in May it was deter- 
mined in Philadelphia to refute the current stories 
that there was no real support for vigorous meas- 
ures among the citizens of the First Congres- 
sional District of Pennsylvania, Accordingly, on 
May 20 a large and enthusiastic meeting was held 
in the State- House yard, at which strong reso- 

63 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

lutions in favor of " a prompt and vigorous war" 
were passed. At this meeting the Democratic 
papers said that twelve thousand persons were 
present; while, on the other hand, the United 
States Gazette of the next day said, — 

"Yesterday afternoon a motley multitude assembled in 
the State House Yard, to the number of about two thou- 
sand, including boys and bystanders, &c. . . . We have 
been asked who is the author of the address read with 
such true democratick emphasis from the scaffold yester- 
day. As yet we have not heard. Judging, however, 
from internal evidence, we should say that it was written 
by a little gentleman, whom his present friend Binns 
most malignantly charged a year or two ago with having 
declared that ' if he had been of age during the revolu- 
tion, he would have been a Tory.* " 

This address, of which Mr. IngersoU was the 
author, was to the people of the United States, 
and contained probably the boldest and most out- 
spoken words in favor of war yet uttered by any 
body of importance. Though it seems to-day 
stilted and overdrawn in style, it plainly found a 
strong response in the fiery state of public feeling 
then prevalent, was reprinted in the National 
Intelligencer, and, according to Richard Rush, at- 
tracted a great deal of notice among prominent 
people at Washington. In less than two weeks 
after the meeting, Mr. Madison sent to Congress 
his message of June i, recommending war, which 

64 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

was formally declared on June i8; and early the 
next year William Jones, who had been the chair- 
man of the meeting, was called to the cabinet as 
Secretary of the Navy. In the latter part of June 
Mr. IngersoU was in Washington, and wrote the 
following letter to Mr. Dallas : 

" Washington 23 June, 1812. 
" Dear Sir, — I have always experienced so much good- 
ness at your hands that I must redeem my promise of 
writing a letter from the metropolitan wilderness, tho' it 
be merely to assure you I have nothing to say. The papers 
inform Washington of what is passing within its district, 
and of course therefore I cannot communicate what the 
papers have not anticipated. There is to be sure gener- 
ally some political, as well as tea-table small talk, which 
flourishes here as elsewhere, but I have not had either 
time or opportunity to gather much of even this. It is 
said that Mr. Foster * persisted till the very day of judg- 
ment, under the information of some gentlemen as much 
deceived as he was himself, to laugh at the idea of war, 
and that he has now upon him the distressing con- 
sciousness of having misinformed his government as he 
was misinformed himself. It is said that Gen. Smith & 
Mr. Giles, -j- with no very great cordiality for cooperating 
with the administration, could not resist original impres- 
sions, when brought to 'a.Dositive test, and in spite of 

* Augustus John Foster, minister from England. 

f General Samuel Smith, United States Senator from 
Maryland, and William B. Giles, United States Senator 
from Virginia, both voted for the war. 
5 65 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

personal feelings, could not find freedom, as we say in 
Philadelphia, to vote for England against America. It is 
said that Mr. Pope * has not coincided, but utterly contra- 
dicted, the wishes of Kentucky — that Dr. Mitchill,-]- by 
voting, as he thought, with N. York, perpetrated a most 
dreadful outrage on his own opinion — that Gen. Worthing- 
ton.J and some other negatives federal as well as repub- 
lican, not excepting even Mr. Lloyd of Massachusetts or 
Mr. Goldsborough of Maryland, have declared that as the 
die is now cast, we must all hands play for our countr}' — 
that in short it begins to be very disreputable to be obsti- 
nately submissive, and that the majority have gained 
ground, confidence and self-satisfaction every day since 
the iSth as the minority have lost those enjoyments. The 
last levee, I am told, was like an evening after a great 
victory. Such felicitations, shaking of hands, and re- 
joicings as were never exhibited here before — and not 
without cause, as there was some reason to apprehend that 
patriotism would be made to fall down before prejudices — 
and both the result and the principles of its decision were 
highly, equally gratifying. Such men as several who were 
counted on for disaffection, some of them with strong pro- 
pensities to embroilment, could not stand the impulses 
propelling them over the shoals of faction and after floun- 
dering there rather long indeed, ultimately floated in 



* Senator John Pope, of Kentucky, voted against the 
war. 

f Samuel L. Mitchill, Representative from New York, 
voted for the war. 

\ Senator Thomas Worthington, of Ohio, voted against 
the war. 

66 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

smooth and customary channels. We have now an ac- 
knowledged enemy. It is necessary only that we be 
friends to ourselves to accomplish all we can desire. As 
I shall not set off on my return till Thursday morning the 
next drawing room will afford me an occasion better than 
I otherwise can compass of ascertaining the common 
pulse. When I have the pleasure of seeing you in Fourth 
St. I may perhaps be better freighted with news. Till then 
and at all times believe me your sincere and respectfull 
humble servant. 

" Mr. Roosevelt is sub judice." 

During this same spring Mr. Ingersoll had been 
writing a series of papers for the Democratic Press, 
urging war in the strongest terms, and denouncing 
the English and the opposition in New England. 
On July 4 he delivered an oration to Democratic 
citizens at " Mr. Harvey's, Spring Garden," and in 
the autumn of the same year was nominated to 
Congress in the First Congressional District of 
Pennsylvania, and elected with the rest of the Re- 
publican nominees. His correspondence shows 
that he had had thoughts of standing for Congress 
for over a year, but had long hesitated. Nor is 
this to be wondered at, as his professional income 
was at the time six thousand dollars. 

At the time of his election he was but thirty 
years of age,, and was so youthful in appearance 
that the door-keeper of Congress at first declined 
to admit him, thinking it impossible that so young 
a person could be a member. 

67 



CHAPTER III. 

War of 1812 — War-Hawks — Early Failures — Naval Tri- 
umphs — New England Opposition denounced — Thir- 
teenth Congress — His Course in — Speeches — Answers 
Webster on Disunion — Collision with Mr. Stockton — 
New England Federalism — Not re-elected — His Position 
in Congress — Peace — United States District Attorney — 
Letters during the War. 

The war of 18 12 was emphatically the war of 
the youth of America, the most important step 
which had yet been brought about by the genera- 
tion upon whose shoulders was rapidly falling the 
mantle of the fathers of the country. Mr. Inger- 
soU often spoke of it as the " second edition of 
American Independence;" and even the Revolu- 
tion would not have ranked as the heroic period 
of our existence in a higher degree than the Second 
War, but for the violent opposition to it of that 
section of our country which, though then so out 
of tune with the tendency of American history, has 
come in time not only largely to guide the course 
of public affairs, but to write our history as well. 
New England's bitter and factious opposition, 
driven to the very verge of disunion, and the fer- 
tile soil where sprung up the theories upon which 

the successive advocates of secession have based 

68 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

their claims, probably prevented the war from 
being a great triumph, and has certainly obscured 
its necessity and its daring boldness. The series 
of oppressions and outrages which led up to it was 
indeed such as is to-day marvellous to think of. 

New admiralty rules, invented to render neu- 
tral {i.e., American) commerce impossible ; decrees 
in council which recolonized us ; and the right of 
search, exercised at the will of insolent sea-captains 
against even fishing-smacks and coasting-vessels 
and an American vessel of war, constitute a chap- 
ter of history which may well make one laugh at 
such an expression as international lazv. But 
when we add to all this the impressment of 
Americans, the cup of our wrongs does indeed 
flow over. Of course, in theory, impressment was 
based upon a ground which was then fairly open 
to argument, — the denial of the right of expatria- 
tion ; but it was necessarily exercised by roving 
sea-captains, bred to the methods of the press- 
gang and reeking with all the then insolence of 
the British quarter-deck, who often sadly needed 
men for their crews, and who had no possible 
means of ascertaining the essential fact of nativity. 
It is well known, and was even then admitted, that 
born Americans had been wrongfully seized in this 
way. 

For a new, peaceful, and only half-united 
country to wage war, even for such wrongs as 

69 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

these, against the giant power of the England of 
1812 was indeed a bold step. But, despite the 
hesitation, the warnings, and the opposition of 
the older generation, the younger War-Hawks at 
length succeeded in carrying their measure. They 
had no hesitations, and looked upon an easy vic- 
tory over England as a foregone conclusion. They 
seem, in the boiling enthusiasm of youth and 
under the sting of a long series of wrongs, to 
have entirely forgotten the stubborn valor and the 
fighting qualities of their opponents, and when 
defeats came, the rude brushing away of dreams 
of easy triumph was indeed a painful experience, 
but abated nothing of their strenuous efforts, nor 
of their confidence in final success. In all this hot- 
headed confidence of youth Mr. IngersoU shared 
fully, and maybe more than most of his associates. 
He tells us how, at a time when he was confident 
that Hull was marching in triumph from Maiden to 
Queenston, he heard doubts and warnings with 
incredulous annoyance from the lips of a friend 
and old Revolutionary soldier. This officer. Gen- 
eral Craig, had experienced the force of English 
armies and the dangers and chances of military 
movements, and shook his head at his young 
friend's confidence, warning him not to be too 
sanguine. It cannot have been long after this that 
the full story of Hull's disgraceful failure became 
known, and the blow must have been a bitter one 

70 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

to those who, like Mr. Ingersoll, had allowed their 
sanguine hopes to soar too high. 

But if the supporters of the war were often con- 
fronted by defeats and even disgraceful disasters 
on land, instead of the easy tide of success they 
had so confidently hoped for, far different was the 
issue of events upon the sea, the very element 
upon which their enemy had annihilated all other 
competitors. There, triumph succeeded triumph 
with dazzling brilliancy. In dogged resistance 
against vast odds, in dash, in fertility of expedi- 
ents to overcome difficulties, in gunnery, in sea- 
manship, in everything that goes to give success 
at sea, the young nation, but recently a byword of 
scorn to its opponent, was easily superior, and 
humbled indeed the pride of its arrogant enemy. 
Vessel after vessel lost, and flag after flag struck 
upon the element upon which they hardly knew 
how to strike a flag, was the lesson borne home to 
the British ; and a bitter lesson it was, though very 
necessary, in order to teach a degree of respect for 
their young and thriving progeny. The moral 
effect of these triumphs throughout the world 
cannot be measured, and in this country they 
were of course received with unbounded exulta- 
tion. Nothing has come to my hands to show 
how Mr. Ingersoll received them, but it is likely 
that he was more prepared for maritime successes 
than most of his countiymen. He tells '5 in his 

71 



S-^V .»»T^ V*-^ . iT* -* 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" Second War" a story he had heard of Nelson's 
admiration and almost apprehension of the way 
American vessels were handled, and Inchiquin 
had fully appreciated the high character of our 
navy, and written as follows of it : 

" Among so small a number of individuals as compose 
the officers of this little navy, never did nor does there 
exist a more glorious spirit of chivalric valor and enter- 
prise, superior nautical skill and proficiency, discipline, 
subordination and concert in time of service, more gentle- 
manlike deportment, urbanity and unexceptionable con- 
duct in society. There is no body of men so well deserving 
to be entitled the flower of the country." 

It is also worthy of mention that the corre- 
spondence between Mr. IngersoU and Richard 
Rush shows that at the very outbreak of the war 
they had selected Decatur as a man sure to distin- 
guish himself Mr. IngersoU, too, had early se- 
lected as his special favorite in the army — and, I 
think, had helped to appoint — General Jacob 
Brown, who showed himself later one of our 
most determined and successful officers. 

Some of the correspondence between Mr. Inger- 
soU and Mr. Rush during the war has been pre- 
served, and it presents an interesting view of the 
intense feeling of the time, and shows that these two 
young men had in them in a high degree that burn- 
ing ardor which wins battles and does so many great 
deeds. It was Mr. Pvush who, after some sleepless 

72 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

nights, he tells us, conceived and proposed the idea 
of Mr. Jefferson's being called into the cabinet ; and 
upon the failure of Hull he bitterly regrets that at 
least some one small band of the Americans had 
not refused to surrender, and had not thrown them- 
selves upon the enemy and inspired their country- 
men to high actions, instead of all surrendering 
without a blow. 

Nor was Mr. IngersoU one whit behind him, but 
was laboring in every way open to him to push 
on the fortunes of the war. Not only did he early 
put all the small estate he owned into the Federal 
loan which was issued, but the columns of the 
Democratic Press^^ contained from his pen numer- 
ous " Yankee philippics," as Mr. Rush termed 
them, in which the " miscreants" who opposed the 
war were roundly denounced, and were dared to 
separate from the Union ; and the English, too, 
were often handled without gloves. The timid 
and halting measures of the administration, par- 
ticularly before war was declared, were gall and 
wormwood to him, and he protested and declaimed 
against them in a series of letters which consider- 
ably ruffled the more mild nature of Mr. Rush. 

During the sessions of Congress, Mr. IngersoU 
boarded at O'Neale's, and was punctually on hand 
to take his seat at the opening of the special 
session on May 24, 181 3. Among the new mem- 
bers who came with him were Daniel Webster 

73 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and John Forsyth. Clay, Calhoun, Grundy, and 
Cheves were probably the recognized leaders on 
the administration side, but Mr. Ingersoll soon 
achieved for himself also a like rank. Every meas- 
ure for the vigorous prosecution of the war had 
his unwavering support, — the bills to encourage 
enlistments, including that for the enlistment of 
minors over eighteen ; the later measure for militia 
drafts ; the efficient measures for raising revenue 
by taxation ; the bill for the charter of a bank, — 
all found in him an earnest advocate. Nor was 
he by any means contented with the methods 
adopted, but was constantly a supporter, during 
the formation of bills in committee, of far more 
efficient plans than those which the bulk of the 
party sustained ; and his voice rang out, more- 
over, on every occasion in earnest support of the 
justice and propriety of the war, and in denuncia- 
tion of certain features of its conduct by the Eng- 
lish, and of the bitter and unpatriotic opposition 
of New England. Though one of the youngest 
members, he was chairman of the Judiciary Com- 
mittee and a member of that upon Foreign Rela- 
tions, and was earnest in attending to his duties. 
When worn out by the contests of a long session, 
and oppressed with the heat and other discomforts 
of Washington, he would write home that he was 
" too patriotic to be homesick, but beginning to be 
very impatient to be at home." 

74 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

His first set speech was delivered on June 29, 
and very markedly showed his independence. The 
House was in Committee of the Whole upon a 
revenue bill, and Mr. Ingersoll, in a speech sus- 
taining: resolutions of his for a succession and in- 
come tax, referred to the recent acceptance of the 
Russian offer of mediation, and spoke of Mr. Gal- 
latin as " now ... on his way to the Arctic 
Circle in pursuit of peace, intoxicated, I am afraid, 
with vain hopes of at least a very doubtful and 
dangerous success," and then went on to express 
himself as follows : '? 

" Most heartily, for my part, do I wish the Russian mis- 
sion a speedy accompUshment of all its objects ! But, 
though I have avoided inflaming this debate with a re- 
capitulation of the causes of this just war, permit me to 
avail myself of this occasion to throw in very briefly my 
ideas of its legitimate progress and proper termination. 
If I differ in opinion with any of my friends, as it is an 
honest difference, there can be no impropriety in my ex- 
hibiting the grounds of the sentiments I entertain. I am 
one of the last individuals in this House who would wan- 
tonly utter a disrespectful or ungracious sentiment con- 
cerning any of the measures of that Administration, to 
which I am attached, or toward that excellent person in 
particular, who, so much to the interest and satisfaction 
of his country, fills the Executive Magistracy of these 
United States ; . . . But, sir, I espoused this just and in- 
evitable war, not because it was a measure of the present 
Administration — and I am wedded to its fortunes — not 
merely because the present Administration is intrusted 

75 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

with its prosecution. My affiance is founded on higher 
and deeper, I will add, nobler principles — principles which 
will outlive this and every other Administration. I sup- 
port, and will continue to support, this war, so long as I 
shall remain in the conscientious belief, together with the 
majority of the American people, that the hostilities we 
ought to be waging are indispensable to the welfare, the 
character, the union, the existence of the nation. 

"Sir, having said thus much, let me add, with a full 
foresight of the responsibility I incur — having well con- 
sidered what I am about to say — and prompted in its 
public declaration by a powerful sense of pubhc duty, I 
proceed to add, that I am afraid this war has been mortified 
with too pacific an aspect ; I fear its vigor has been cramped 
for the purpose of pampering a premature peace. I am 
as warm a friend to peace as any man, and would subscribe 
to it on as moderate terms ; but after war has been de- 
clared, in my humble apprehension, peace-seeking is not 
the avenue to peace, is not pacific policy. If this war 
had been waged with a boldness, such as has marked our 
incessant endeavors to put a stop to it, which have followed 
each other ever since war was declared, in an increasing 
ratio of iteration and intensity, I have no doubt that the 
enemy, long before now, would have been panting for 
peace, pent up within the walls of Quebec, if indeed even 
the last resort of his annoyance, the ultima thule of his 
foothold on the North American continent had not been in 
your safekeeping, a pledge, a mortgage, for a permanent 
pacification." 

This was certainly a very outspoken criticism 
of the administration, and is hardly likely to have 
been pleasing to the authorities; but it does not 

76 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

seem to have injured its author, and it is hardly 
open to question that he was quite right. Nor can 
it be doubted that the presence of so outspoken a 
friend was very useful as a restraint upon the 
cabinet from giving too free scope to its peaceful 
plans and longings. 

In the summer of 1813, Mr. Ingersoll published 
a very long letter to his constituents on the foreign 
relations of the United States and the origin of the 
war, which was printed at large in the National In- 
telligencer of July 31 and attracted wide attention. 

It is worthy of note that on January 14, 18 14, 
he answered impromptu the first set speech of 
Daniel Webster, and in at least one other instance 
he had occasion to answer the same great oppo- 
nent. On December 9, 18 14, upon the discussion 
of the bill for militia drafts, Mr. Webster had 
been indulging himself in some of those threats of 
disunion which constituted no small part of the 
argument of the New England opposition, and 
Mr, Ingersoll answered him*^ with spirit, directing 
his attention at the same time to certain other 
arguments of members from New England. 

"They denounce that Administration," he said, "as 
the most imbecile, indigent, and despicable in the world ; 
and yet, with all the wealth, and all the talents, they have 
in vain withheld their wealth, in vain exercised their 
talents to thrust this miserable obstacle from their course. 
They possess, exclusively, all the physical resources, and 

77 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

all the patriotic attachments of the soil of the country — the 
bone, marrow, sinews, and vitals of the State — and they 
come here to reproach Administration for not having 
prevented or defeated a sudden inroad upon this Capital, 
while a portion of their own territory has been, for six 
months, in the undisputed occupation of the enemy — sub- 
dued without resistance, and held without an effort to 
regain it. We can all recollect, Mr. Chairman, how the 
gentleman from New Hampshire, (Mr. Webster,) in par- 
ticular, demonstrated to us, about this time last year, that 
our war was unpopular and unjust ; how he entertained us 
with distinctions between war offensive and war defensive ; 
between the mercenary spirit of extra-territorial conquest 
and aggrandizement on the one hand, and the generous 
ardor of repelling invasion on the other ; how he proved 
our inability to conquer Canada without the cordial co- 
operation of New England ; and how speedily Canada 
would be overrun and subdued if his immediate fellow- 
citizens could be enlisted into the cause, instead of the 
armies — and yet, now that the war has become defensive 
to them ; now that it has pushed itself into their planta- 
tions ; now that the conqueror rings the knell of a curfew 
every evening over their own firesides, not a note of 
preparation or resistance do we hear from their mountains 
or their seaboard, nor any other note but that of rejoicing 
in the happy exchange they have made of war without 
trade for trade without war. Nay, sir, they are more 
robust than ever in opposition to the war, now that nothing 
is left in dispute but a canton of their own soil ; and they 
venture to threaten us with disunion for presuming to enact 
a militia law, when the enemy offers us a peace we can 
accede to at any moment, and leave that section which 
shakes the rod of dismemberment over our heads to fight 

7S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

out the battle with Great Britain. Sir, I do not belong to 
that slaveholding portion of these States to which such 
frequent and such angry allusions are made from another 
quarter, and, for particular reasons, I look with a degree 
of reverence and a strong regard towards the East. 1 
listen, too, with pleasure, generally, to whatever falls 
from the gentleman from New Hampshire, (Mr. Webster,) 
because, however I may disapprove the doctrine, it is, for 
the most part, supported by argument, as to-day it was by 
eloquence. But it was, if I may so express it, with a very 
painful pleasure that I attended to his pathetic threats this 
morning. 

" jMr. Chairman, a dissolution of this Confederacy is a 
national misfortune, upon which I never think v.ithout 
great pain. The political school in which I have made 
my inconsiderable acquisitions, abhors and deprecates so 
desperate a resort. I know of but one evil more to be 
dreaded. But there is one, and of that one I inform the 
gentleman from New Hampshire. It is the deterring 
those States who hold a legitimate ascendency in the Gov- 
ernment from any measure whatever, by the threat of a 
dismemberment as the consequence of it. Whenever this 
is the case, the Union is virtually dissolved. The sub- 
stance is gone, and nothing remains but the shadow — a 
cold and melancholy shade of authority — without warmth, 
without life — contemptible to our enemies, and formidable 
only to ourselves. Minorities have their rights, and I 
should be one of the last to infringe upon them. But 
majorities have duties too, and duties to be performed at 
every hazard. 

' ' Sir, we have been but too long threatened with disso- 
lution, but too often deterred from proper and Constitu- 
tional purposes by such apiirehensions. The same ground 

79 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

was taken in the same quarter against the embargo laws. 
The same threats. But there was no resistance to those 
very severe and unpalatable acts ; and I trust there will 
be none to this militia bill. I do not believe that there 
will. But whether there will or not shall have no influence 
upon me. If I consider the thing just, I shall vote for it 
and maintain it, leaving results to themselves." 

But the speech of his which attracted the most 
notice was made upon the Loan bill on February 
14 and 15, 1 8 14. A correspondent of the Demo- 
cratic Prcss'"^ wrote that he held the House sus- 
pended in mute attention for three hours, and es- 
pecially referred to a power which — we shall see 
later — was characteristic of his eloquence, the 
energy which he imparted to even ordinary 
words. The speech was upon the causes and 
justice of the war, and was full of evidence of 
careful study. Instead of contenting himself with 
"turning up the mere surface of our commercial 
embarrassments,"and beginning with the Berlin and 
Milan decrees, as other debaters had done, he went 
back to the Treaty of Utrecht for the doctrine that 
'• free ships make free goods," and showed how 
doggedly the English had for years resisted the 
Spanish claim of a right of search. All this his- 
tory, as well as that of more recent times and of 
the efforts of the United States to avoid war, was 
illustrated with a mass of historical references 
which made the speech valuable but rather unfits 

So 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

it for reproduction here. Later on he launched 
out into the following '° torrent of invective against 
the English for their employment of the Indians 
as allies : 

"But is there no additional cause for our hostilities? 
Has nothing Ijeen superinduced by the war itself, adding 
to its original inducements most unparalleled aggrava- 
tion ? Mr. Chairman, yes, an atrocity overlooked by our 
Government, familiarized to the minds of the people ; but 
one, nevertheless, against which every cottage should be 
hung with mementoes, every parlor tapestried with re- 
monstrances. I allude, sir, to the barbarian subornation 
by England of our Indian borderers, whose savage thirst 
has been slaked in the blood of our women and children, 
under the direct encouragement of English agency. I 
mean to take some notice of this nefarious inhumanity. 
The Executive Government of this countr}% which is 
accused of so much unfounded hostility to Great Britain, 
has omitted in my humble opinion the most imposing and 
overwhelming complaints with which a nation ever was 
rebuked, by their silence on this subject. But I shall not 
follow the example of the Government ; and shall make 
no apology for presenting this atrocity in its true colors. 
The British manifesto of the 9th January, 181 3, which 
puts forth their justification in this war, states expressly 
that Mr. Foster had instructions to repudiate the foul charge 
of their employment of our Indians. Did he do so ? Never. 
I am aware at least of no solemn protestation from that 
Minister against this imputation, this indelible, deadly blot 
on the annals of this nation. But supposing that he had, 
would that alter the fact ? Should that disprove it ? There 
was indeed a period when the drawing-room and the 

6 81 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

cabinet were hung with specious but most insidious trap- 
pings of amity ; but even then the trans-AUcganean wilder- 
ness was rustling with the preparation of the savage, 
licking his chops in ambush, and hankering for the prom- 
ised repast. There was a time when we examined the 
powder, and the arms, the muskets, and weapons, that 
fell into our hands at the battle of the Wabash, in order 
to ascertain whether the ear-mark of England was upon 
them. There was a time when, if such signs were declared 
to exist, ten thousand voices and pens and prints rose up 
to contradict the ungenerous aspersion. But that time has 
passed away. The Englishman and the Indian, like the 
mastiff and the wolf, since then have always roamed 
abroad together ; the one decorated with the collar and 
other indications of refinement, but without its heart ; the 
other bounding in native ruthlessness ; and kept each 
other's company scouring our forests, contending for their 
prey. . . . 

" What an outrage then this is ! and what proof of it ! 
From the official papers of the British commanders, ex 
cathedra, indeed, have we the evidence of this fell, un- 
manly, and unchristian outrage — an outrage that has no 
equal. I solemnly protest, Mr. Chairman, that my incon- 
siderable knowledge suggests no oblation ever laid on the 
altar of human malignity and vindictiveness to be com- 
pared with this subornation of our Indians — by the English 
who boast of their superior religion and charity, who have 
sent out more missionaries of late for the salvation of 
distant hemispheres than all the rest of the world put 
together — against us Americans, their descendants, their 
flesh and blood — through the instrumentality of those sav- 
ages whom by every liberality and study we have labored 
to humanize and ameliorate, and whom we could at any 

8j 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

moment either extirpate or expel from the neighborhood 
of our frontiers. It is, sir, an excess of wrong which abso- 
lutely flings the hurdle and guillotine behind, and occupies 
the most conspicuous place in the representation of our 
most unnatural passions. True it is, I am aware of it, 
that we have latterly employed some of these monsters in 
our armies. But not until a twelvemonth and more for- 
bearance ; not until after we were taught by bitter lessons 
that English officers and soldiers were to be opposed only 
by the auxiliaries of their own choice ; not till we had 
learned that to carry consternation into British ranks, it 
was necessary to set before them the counterpart of their 
own allies. 

' ' And yet this is a war without a cause ! This is a war 
so wantonly waged on our part ! This is the unnecessary, 
the wicked and the foolish contest we keep up ! . . . 

" But this wanton and disastrous war is also partial in 
its pressure. What an objection to come from Massachu- 
setts to Virginia ! What an objection, while any of the 
patriots of the Revolution survive ! I mention it but to 
say that if Virginia had made such an objection to Massa- 
chusetts in 1775, ^^ should not now have been an inde- 
pendent nation. It is, however, unfounded in fact. The 
pressure is felt more severely in Virginia, Maryland, North 
Carolina, and Louisiana, than in any section whatever of 
the Eastern States." 

On another occasion he denounced^' the Brit- 
ish as 

"these modern Buccaneers, who have carried their 
calicoes for sale throughout the world at the point of the 
bayonet, plunging the bayonet into every bosom that 

«3 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

refused to cover itself with the caHco — who have wrapped 
the four corners of the earth in flames for a monopoly of 
manufactures. We could not dress but in their broad- 
cloths. We could not eat but with their hardwares. We 
could not sleep but in their blankets. Not a hobnail but 
was English. They had us effectually recolonized, without 
bloodshed or expense. But this did not content them." 

Not long before his speech on the Loan bill he 
had had a very severe collision with Mr. Stockton, 
of New Jersey. This gentleman had used an 
expression in debate very much like rejoicing that 
the flag had been struck, and Mr. Ingersoll had at 
once protested against this " monstrous" sentiment. 
A few days afterwards Mr. Stockton explained that 
he had meant that the administration had struck 
its flag and abandoned what he thought untenable 
grounds for the war, and he then proceeded to 
make a violent and most personal attack upon Mr. 
Ingersoll. He is said to hav^e been several times 
called to order by members and by the Chair. 
Mr. Ingersoll immediately, — to quote an opinion'' 
of the day, — " with the utmost coolness and in a 
style of correctness not to be surpassed, gave Mr. 
Stockton such a rebuke as even under ' the frost of 
fifty years' may teach him wisdom." However this 
may be, the answer was dignified and entirely de- 
void of the grossly personal features of Mr. Stock- 
ton's diatribe. What must have added to the pain 
of this episode is the fact of former friendship and 

84 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

intimacy, — such, at least, as can exist between 
men of widely different ages. Mr. Stockton was 
a member of the Judiciary Committee, of which 
Mr. IngersoU was chairman ; so that it is not 
unhkely that they had had collisions before. He 
was one of those perverse Federalists of the New 
England stripe who looked at all points involved 
in the war from the ultra-English stand-point ; our 
maintenance of the right of expatriation was to him 
a subject of ridicule, and presumably he would 
therefore have defended impressment, as did other 
leading members of his party. During the dispute 
with Mr. IngersoU, the latter had laid down as 
follows the general principles for which he consid- 
ered the war to be waged : " i. A regulation of the 
British extension by construction of blockade. 2. 
A limitation of their inordinate catalogue of con- 
traband. 3. No search for men. 4. A qualified 
ascertained and moderate search for things." But, 
mild as these claims were, Mr. Stockton ridiculed 
them, and told Mr. IngersoU that he would " never 
accomplish one solitary article in the list." ^3 

The presence in our midst of this band of able 
men of ultra-English opinions led to many another 
collision than that of Mr. IngersoU and Mr. Stock- 
ton, and constitutes one of the curious features of 
the times. These men, mainly from New England, 
and then easily leading public opinion in that sec- 
tion, were as much at variance with the American 

85 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

views — views now well-nigh universally received — 
as if they had been born and bred in the court 
circles of old England. They took the English 
view upon every question, and in their virulent 
opposition to their own country marched up to the 
very threshold of secession. And what is most 
curious in the matter, though the first fifteen years 
of the century thus saw New England rabidly 
hostile to the trend of American development, yet 
but a few years later found it having its full part in 
that same continuous growth which has marked 
our history. New England writers, who should 
best understand the origin and explanation of this 
change of the controlling public sentiment in their 
section, do not usually try to explain the curious 
transformation, but pass the whole matter largely 
sub siletitio from mistaken pride of locality and a 
desire to conceal their section's maintenance at 
that time of views which have grown very un- 
fashionable in the lapse of years. Schouler forms 
an exception, and examines^* the subject at some 
length. He thinks that the Federalist leaders con- 
stituted, as in the British provinces, a sort of ruling 
gentry, powerful in social influence and full of 
pride and obstinacy. This qtiasi aristocracy had 
inherited its control from colonial times, and was 
overthrown and deprived of its power owing to its 
lamentable failure to lead successfully in the early 

years of the century. But its overthrow was not 

86 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

complete until after 1815, and was a gradual pro- 
cess, while in Pennsylvania the colonial gentry had 
been unhorsed suddenly in 1776 and a new element 
had taken the helm. 

It was to be expected that the capture of Wash- 
ington in the summer of 18 14 would not contribute 
to the success of the administration in the fall 
elections of that year, and in Philadelphia there 
was also the chronic trouble of the factional dis- 
putes which raged between the Binns and Duane- 
Leib elements of the party. The consequence of 
these causes was that, though the State went 
Democratic, the Democrats were badly beaten in 
Philadelphia, and Mr, Ingersoll, with the rest of 
the Congressional ticket, was defeated. He took 
part, of course, in the remaining short session, but 
with that period his political career came to an end 
for many years. 

That he had made for himself a very prominent 
position cannot be doubted. Entering Congress 
not only for the first time, but a young man and 
unknown to the public but for a very few years, 
he left it after only one term of service, with a high 
degree of prominence and having earned for him- 
self the position of a leader. An eloquent speaker, 
easily holding an audience for a long period, he 
was, moreover, a ready debater, quite able to give 
blows, and many of his speeches were full of a 
learning which was very valuable. Indeed, this 

S7 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

was rather characteristic of them, and I do not 
think he often spoke without study. His corre- 
spondence shows that he frequently wrote to Mr. 
Duponceau, Mr. Madison, Mr. Dallas, and others 
for aid upon points which he wanted to treat. 
He was, moreover, as his writings show, intimate 
with the cabinet and well acquainted with their 
plans, and he formed friendships with Mr. Madi- 
son and Mr. Monroe which endured as long as 
their lives. He was deeply interested in the plans 
of the campaign intended to be made in 1815 
against Halifax, and wrote =^5 later that the support 
of New England had been promised for it by a 
member of the Hartford Convention. But this 
campaign happily became unnecessary through 
the treaty of peace ; and after sharing in the votes 
of thanks and the exultation which all felt at Jack- 
son's pride-restoring victory and at the peace, he 
went home on the 28th of February — with the 
country all still in a blaze of triumph — to assume 
the duties of United States District Attorney at 
Philadelphia, to which position he had been ap- 
pointed at the instance of Mr. Dallas, who had 
just resigned it in order to enter the cabinet as 
Secretary of the Treasury. 

In regard to his position in the councils of his 
party, he was undoubtedly intimate with all the 
leaders, including those who, like Binns, were 
mostly concerned in practical politics, and he was 

ss 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

at times active in questions of patronage, as nota- 
bly in the removal of Postmaster-General Granger; 
but I do not think, on the whole, that he was 
usually called upon to take a very active part in 
the practical movements of the political game. He 
had not that cool calculation and self-restraint 
which are needed, and his correspondence shows 
that his friends thought him rather lacking in the 
sort of judgment necessary in such matters. 
Shortly before his election he had formed a plan to 
found and edit a Republican magazine in conjunc- 
tion with service in Congress, and with this object 
in view had drafted a letter to Mr, Madison detail- 
ing his plan and asking for an appointment to a 
foreign mission to enable him to collect certain 
material necessary for his purpose. He consulted 
Mr. Rush about this plan, and was dissuaded from 
it by that gentleman, whose greater knowledge of 
official decorum and methods was much shocked 
by Mr. IngersoU's blunt directness. 

The following letters of his are from the war 
period : 



•a 



To Alex. J. Dallas. 

" Washington i8 December 1S13. 
"MydearSir, — . . . Astoi8o5 — great indeed was the 
occasion and great your effort, greater your success. But 
what are such struggles to the grand conflict of the present 
day ? Moreover, your fine sentiment that this holy war 
has advanced us a century per saltern in power and char- 

89 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

acter shall excuse so bad a reason for such indefensible 
sequestration as you attempt to defend in your own in- 
stance. 

" I must add now to the requisitions preferred in my last 
letter. We contemplate important alterations in the Judi- 
ciary such as abolishing the Circuit Courts as at present 
organized, enlarging the number, jurisdiction and salaries 
of the District judges, giving the Supreme nothing but 
appellate powers &c &c. What do you say ? and remem- 
ber that if you advise any plan, I shall not be satisfied 
•with an outline. I wish the Judiciary Committee had 
leave to offer a reward for the best drafted bill, phrase, 
point and all — to save me from such an undertaking, and, 
what is of more consequence, to save the nation from my 
performance. ..." 

To Alex. J. Dallas. 

" Washington 26 January 1814. 
" My DEAR Sir, — . . . I wish heartily your resolutions 
had arrived about six weeks earlier. Agreeably to instruc- 
tions from my abominable Committee I carried thro' a 
couple of Resolutions, which are the same as yours in sub- 
stance without their pith or elegance, except in the circum- 
stance of asking leave to act and consult in recess. I am 
therefore prevented the adoption of your suggestion in the 
main — and as to the latter part of it I am quite sure that 
leave wd. not be given. Congress are not so true to their 
fealty to lawyers as to entrust any of them with such author- 
ity. The traces of the Midnight Judiciary and its Midnight 
repeal, the conflict between the bar and the community, 
the associations between ideas of English common law and 
American common sense, in short the whole field of con- 
troversy and sensibility on this subject must be turned 

90 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

over and cultivated afresh for some time before such a 
commission can be obtained. 

" I am very much obHged by your memoranda of the 
MiHtia principles as settled by Gen. Washington's admin- 
istration and subscribed to in 94. But do you consider 
the case of the constitution as between one state and an- 
other the same as that between a state and its foreign 
frontier? ..." 

To Nicholas Biddle. 

" Washington 14 December 1S14. 

"Dear Sir, — I do not believe that Congress will adopt 
any important measures of preparation for another cam- 
paign beyond the enactment of a system of severe 
and productive taxation, and perhaps the establishment 
of a national bank. On all military bills and subjects the 
diversity of sentiment is so great and irreconcilable that 
I have little expectation of any thing being done. If we 
can raise money I suppose we can raise men, and we can 
raise money if we can surmount our own preposterous 
prejudices and crudities. My own views would not how- 
ever refer the creation of an army to the Treasury. I 
w^ould attempt a more direct and I think a more appro- 
priate application of the physical resources. But there is 
certainly not a majority of this opinion. I shall be glad 
of an opportunity to exchange with you the news of Wash- 
ington for the news of Harrisburg, and remain at all times." 

To Alex. J. Dallas. 

" Philadelphia 30 April 1815. 
" My dear Sir, — ^Well. and what do you think of this ? 
We have seen the scenes changed at a theatre, we have 
read the Arabian Nights entertainment, and we have 

91 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

heard the wind blow at Washington. But they are all 
nothing to this. If Solomon could publish a new edition 
of his works don't you think he'd leave out that completely 
exploded saw which says there is nothing new under the 
sun ? It is all vanity and vexation might be left in for the 
benefit of the Bourbons, but the other should be suppressed 
in compliment to the Bonapartes. Did you ever see such 
fine acting ? Why he beats poor Louis at his only guard, 
that of whimpering. To invade France at the head of a 
thousand vagabonds, and have 'em all to dine with him 
at the Tuileries three weeks afterwards. Happy he who 
has lived, a spectator, not an actor, for the last eighteen 
months at Paris — he will have had the historical experi- 
ence of many ages, — he may die when he likes — Our 
friends the Bulls will have a blessed time of it. If London 
was a scene of unexampled agitation when the adventurer 
was but at Grenoble, what will they say to it when he 
reviews the enchanted armies at Paris ? Poor Dr. Eusds,* 
I fear, will be the greatest sufferer. Before he reaches his 
destination the king of the Netherlands may be a squeezed 
orange. Our little exploits at Orleans, which we flattered 
ourselves would make such a noise seem to be almost 
drowned in the clamor of these great European tocsins. 
I hope you have had an opportunity of reminding O'Neale 
to send my engraving. I am afraid now of Serrurier'sf 
asking for it back again, and it would be ungenerous to 
take it from me since the restoration when I would have 
hung it up at the worst of times. 

"We had a very elegant peace ball, tho' not quite as 



* Dr. William Eustis, Secretary of War from 1809 to 
1813, had been appointed minister to Holland in 1814. 
+ The French minister. 

92 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

much so as the paragraph in the Press, which I ascribe to 
Mr. Manager George. 

" I am looking every day for the Attorney Gen.* to con- 
dole with him on the news. 

' ' Eppes has lost his election — he deserved it. What 
with the election of Randolph and the restoration of Bona- 
parte what an animated year or two we shall have." 



* Richard Rush was United States Attorney-General 
from 1814 to 1817, and Mr. IngersoU constantly referred 
to him by his official title. His sympathies were with the 
English, and this was a point of difference between him 
and Mr. IngersoU. 



93 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Bar — Wide Correspondence— Visit to Mr. Madison — 
Mr. Monroe and the Loan obtained for him — His Aid 
invoked in a Matrimonial Venture — Letters — Diary from 
Washington in 1823 — His Industry — PubHc Orations — 
Address on Reception of La Fayette — "Europe long 
ago." 

Upon his return to Philadelphia after the close 
of the war, Mr. IngersoU entered upon a long 
period of great activity at the bar. He wrote the 
next winter that he was determined " to be a mere 
lawyer, jurisconsultus merus, for the next 15 years. 
... I have been so much from home during the 
last two or three years debauching in politics that 
one half the foolish world still seems to think that 
I am in Washington and not in Philadelphia this 
winter; therefore I should not suffer anything 
short of the most crying exigency to take me 
from home at least for a year or two till I afford 
the requisite proof that I am in Philadelphia and 
not in Washington." 

He continued to hold the position of United 
States District Attorney for more than fourteen 
years, so that his term of service has never been 
equalled by any other incumbent of the office; 

94 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and he had, moreover, a large and varied private 
practice. It has already been stated that before 
he went to Congress in 1813 his professional in- 
come was as large as six thousand dollars, — an 
enormous sum in those days ; and he has himself 
recorded that in a single day in December of 181 1 
he was consulted in the following matters. A 
French merchant, ruined by a verdict against him, 
applied for his aid in securing a new trial, and 
assured him he would not survive a repulse. A 
carpenter, half distracted, applied to him to recover 
his daughter, who had been enticed from his house 
and ruined. A well-known citizen, who had failed, 
applied to him to be his second in some duels he 
expected, and for his professional aid. A lady of 
fifty-five, who had married a man much younger 
than herself, consulted him in the deepest grief at 
finding that her supposed husband had already 
been married to another woman. 

The period of his most active practice after his 
return from Congress was one which called for 
the highest abilities in a lawyer; not only were 
questions of great moment on constitutional points 
pending from the time of the war, but in those 
early years reported precedents were but few, and 
the lawyer had to depend upon his full mastery 
and accurate application of broad principles. In 
this there was a very high interest and an absolute 
need of constructive ability before a lawyer could 

95 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

attain any marked success. In all the duties which 
thus fell upon him, Mr, Ingersoll was a hard worker 
and achieved a high reputation. He became soon 
a most dangerous opponent, and was always most 
interesting to listen to, — so much so that even 
now, more than a half-century since he practically 
retired from the bar, I have found among a few 
of the oldest lawyers a recollection and among a 
good many others a strong tradition of his brilliant 
oratory, with a few snatches from speeches of his 
which exist only thus in memory, but seem in 
some way to have burned themselves into the very 
mind of his hearer. But the special character- 
istics which marked him at the bar will be best 
considered more at length hereafter, when speaking 
of him as an orator generally. 

We must think of him during a good many 
years following the war as devoting himself to the 
practice of his profession, at first apparently in a 
large degree to the exclusion of other matters, but 
with a gradual reawakening of his attention to 
public affairs. He had been and became again 
later a most active correspondent, keeping up a 
constant exchange of letters with a great number 
of people, both at home and abroad ; and though 
a large portion of his correspondence (which he 
kept carefully) was destroyed after his death, 
enough remains to show that it was very wide. It 

was in this way that men of his day procured a 

90 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

great deal of the news which we now get from the 
pubHc prints; and as Mr. IngersoU's correspond- 
ents were principally men actively engaged in 
public life, he was no doubt very well informed 
upon the history of his time. With Mr. Madison 
he always maintained the friendship which had 
been formed during the war, and corresponded 
with him frequently. Their letters show that he 
had as early as 1817 formed the plan of writing a 
history of the war with England, and had written to 
Mr. Madison in regard to papers in his hands bear- 
ing upon the subject. In May, 1836, but a month 
and a half before Mr. Madison's death, he and his 
eldest daughter went by invitation on a visit to 
Montpelier, and Mr. Ingersoll had the pleasure of 
personally renewing his acquaintance after twenty 
years* interruption. Mr. Madison was then very 
weak in body, but his mind was clear, and they 
had long conversations upon subjects of public 
interest. After his death in June, Mr. Ingersoll 
published an account ^^ of the visit and of the views 
Mr. Madison had expressed, containing interesting 
details of his opinions of his contemporaries, as 
well as of the great questions which were at that 
time beginning to agitate the public mind. 

With Mr. Monroe, too, he often corresponded, 
and quite a mass of letters has survived concern- 
ing a loan he obtained for him in 1822, which 
illustrate curiously the difficulty in obtaining large 
7 97 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

loans at that day even for the President of the 
United States. Mr, Monroe's affairs had become 
straitened by his long absence from home, and 
he was anxious, moreover, to aid his daughter. 
He accordingly wrote to Mr. Ingersoll on Novem- 
ber 25, 1822, to say that he wanted a loan of fif- 
teen or twenty thousand dollars on a farm of 
three thousand five hundred acres near Charlottes- 
ville, Virginia, which he estimated to be worth 
thirty or forty thousand dollars. He proposed 
to mortgage this farm, and offered to have it ap- 
praised first by any of his neighbors, — Jefferson, 
Madison, the Barbours, or Judge Nelson, as the 
lender might prefer. If this could not be obtained, 
he would like to have one to five thousand dollars 
loaned him for a short time on his note; but he 
cautioned Mr. Ingersoll against bringing his name 
before any bank, nor did he want it mentioned 
except in confidence to a person presumed to be 
willing to make the loan. Mr. Ingersoll took the 
matter up at once, and soon found the larger loan 
impossible to obtain upon security out of the State 
and at such a distance, but he did succeed in 
obtaining a promise of two thousand five hundred 
dollars upon the security of the mortgage. Mr. 
Monroe wished, however, to be able to sell the 
land, and objected to giving a mortgage of such a 
large tract for so small a sum ; finally he mort- 
gaged another smaller tract of ground. He re- 

98 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

quested that the mortgage should not be recorded 
for eight months (the time allowed by the law of Vir- 
ginia), as he expected to pay it off within that time. 
As a matter of fact, the loan appears to have been 
still partially unpaid in 1826, and long before that 
time Mr. IngersoU had discovered that the non- 
recording of the mortgage upon its execution 
rendered it void as against purchasers, the law of 
Virginia upon the subject having been changed 
by a very recent statute. Such were the difficul- 
ties of lenders and of borrowers, even in the most 
exalted station, in those days. It does not appear 
who was the lender in this instance, the papers 
having been all drawn in Mr. Ingersoll's own 
name. 

But his aid was occasionally invoked in still 
more curious cases. Thus, in 1826 he was called 
upon in a matrimonial venture. A Boston ac- 
quaintance, fifty-five years of age, and formerly a 
man of some eminence at the bar at his home and 
in Washington, who had lost his wife some six 
months before, wrote of the dismal woe incident 
upon his loss, and told how his first impulse had 
been to fly from the insupportable gloom and 
solitude of his household and " seek refuge by a 
tour through Europe, or, probably, if I should 
continue to exist, by a residence of some years in 
foreign climes." But soon, he added, the welfare 
of a son deterred him from this plan, and he de- 

99 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

cided he must stay at liovie, " or, rather, where I 
am." He then went on to say that he had met a 
certain lady of Philadelphia once some eighteen 
years before, with whom he had been much 
pleased. Her manners were then a little too gay 
and fashionable, but since then, he wrote, — 

"there has, of course, been abundant time for the evap- 
oration of all the more volatile properties of her more 
youthful character and for maturing and consolidating its 
more substantial parts, so that, at this time, she must, I 
should suppose, be exactly such a kind of woman as a 
man even of sedate disposition might learn to admire and 
cherish." 

He had learned recently, he added, that she was 
still unmarried, and he wanted Mr. IngersoH's opin- 
ion whether the connection would be a desirable 
one for him, and further wanted him to " make 
some incidental inquiry as to the present state of 
her mind in regard to such an alliance." The 
black gloom of the first part of the letter melts 
away into a half-jocose style when the writer is 
dealing with the proposed new love. A second 
letter shows that Mr. Ingersoll had for some reason 
advised against attempting the alliance in ques- 
tion ; but his correspondent, though thus convinced 
that the ''fair personage" he referred to would not 
suit, hoped for some hint or advice from Mr. In- 
gersoll as to some other suitable feminine, in re- 

lOO 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

gard to whose character he could only say in 

general terms, " The nearer the approximation in 

everything to the exact similitude of tJiat One, 

whose loss, I know, can never be wholly repaired, 

the nearer would be the consummation of all my 

sublunary hopes and wishes." With this the 

correspondence ends, nor do I know what was the 

outcome of the widower's plans. 

The following letters will give some idea of Mr. 

Ingersoll's life, and the diary from Washington in 

1823 enclosed in his letter to Mr. Rush contains 

an extremely interesting picture of the then life in 

the capital and of the political struggles of the 

day: 

To Alex. J. Dallas. 

" Philadelphia 31 March 1S16. 
" My dear Sir, — Appearances indicate the failure of 
the bank, and your resignation, both of which I regret. 
On s'ennuie de tout say the people who have provided 
more liberally than any other against that disorder. Laudet 
diversa sequentes. But are you, excuse the question, are 
you quite sure that the first time you take your seat in a 
hot room at a bad tavern round an arbitration table you 
will not recur to the Treasury, or at least to public life, 
with something like a memory of joys that are past ? Our 
friend the Attorney General * and I have often agreed that 
you excel at the bar, but that you were made for public 
life. Pray note the diversity. Why not have George and 

* It has been already said that Mr. Ingersoll often re- 
ferred to Mr. Richard Rush by his then official title. 

lOI 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

me to buffet it in the sea of law, till forty five or forty ? — I 
mean to shut up shop then — and recreate yourself in some 
more elevated &; less teasing sphere ..." 



To Alex. J. Dallas (undated). 

"My dear Sir, — I presume by your silence that you 
found my last letter unanswerable. I had some conversa- 
tion on the subject this morning with George. . . . You 
and Mr. Monroe, with our friend Mr. Attorney may do a 
world of good. I long to see the Executive Department 
what the constitution designed it to be, an independent 
one, not the handmaid, the ancilla, I might say, the 
strumpet of the Legislative. On all public considerations 
your staying in the Treasury is, without compliment, a na- 
tional desideratum. As to the private views, it would be im- 
pertinent in me to analyse them. Certainly you have earned 
the otium and the dignitatem, both by your long labors 
as a professional and provincial man, and by your most 
daring and generous relinquishment of the fruits of that 
field for the stormy and alarming ocean of the general 
government at the time you braved its portents and 
espoused its fortunes. . . . But to a man of proper ambi- 
tion there is a powerful attraction even tho' it costs. For 
instance — what a gratifying triumph over disaffection and 
meanness and stockjobbing and pursepride you gain in the 
publication of your late manifesto, parts of which I have 
read four times since I first met with it this morning. 
Last February there was not a bank director nor a broker 
who did not value himself at a much higher rate than the 
credit of his country, and now the whole genus is boule- 
verse at the footstool of the Treasury — where they ought 
to be. Without a compliment again, you have shewn 

102 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

those profound folks that you understood their own busi- 
ness better' than they did themselves." 



To Alex. J. Dallas. 

" Philadelphia 27 April 1816. 

•' My DEAR Sir, — I have been too much occupied lately 
to write you an account however short, of George's debut, 
which he made in the Circuit Court, in a manner to do 
him great credit and afford you great pleasure. . . , 

"If you are really returning to the bar I wish most 
heartily that you could have undertaken the present ses- 
sion of the Circuit Court with us, for (in dreadful confi- 
dence imparted) my colleagues, Mr. Rawle and my good 
father, in Oliver Evans' and the Spanish cases, are so 
frostbitten with caution & reserve that after being signally 
defeated in the first I am afraid our prospects are by no 
means brilliant in the last. Mr. Rawle spoke yesterday in 
the king of Spain and Oliver's, and — if I had been re- 
tained on the other side I would have been better pleased 
with his performance. Oliver Evans has only run away 
under nonsuit and lives to fight another day — but I doubt 
whether his most catholic Majesty, after next Tuesday will 
be able to maintain his persona standi in judicio [^z"r]. 

" The question of who was the true king is but faintly 
agitated on this trial, and that there might be no doubt on 
that point, Judge Washington dined yesterday in company 
with one of the monarchs at a gentleman's table. What 
a commentary on recent events ! and on the inherent 
vicissitudes of humanity ! Joseph, whose title is Count de 
Survilliers, has taken Lansdown and means to abide 
among us. Several gentlemen have visited, and some 
have entertained him — among the former dc Kantzow, on 

103 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

the strength of his near connection with the crown prince. 
We had at table yesterday the exking, Count Regnault de 
Saint- Jean d'Angely, Generals Clausel and Lefebvre-Des- 
nouettes and some of their attendants. The king of 
France has treated Madame Joseph with marked atten- 
tion, offered to except her and her daughters from the 
clause of proscription against the Bonapartes contained in 
the Amnesty Act, and, on her declining to separate her 
fortunes from her husband's, sent her permission to remain 
in France as long as her convenience requires. Joseph is 
a good looking middle aged man and talks, I am told 
(for tho' I have had two or three little entretiens with him, 
I have not heard him) without any restraint of ' quand 
j'etois roi de Naples' and 'quand j'etois roi d'Espagne.* 
He did so, I know, yesterday to Gen. Izard who sat be- 
tween him and me and mentioned it to me the moment 
afterwards. They were perfect strangers. As you are to 
be vis a vis sa majeste this summer on the banks of the 
Schuylkill you will have the means of taking his altitude 
yourself. He receives and returns the visits of such per- 
sons as think proper to call on him and professes, I under- 
stand, to prefer the society of Philadelphia to that of New 
York. . . ."" 

To Alex. J. Dallas. 

" 5 AugTist 1816. 
" My DEAR Sir, — Brevity is the soul of such an Inscrip- 
tion »7 as that designed for the Capitol and I have not time 
to be brief — I do not Uke the re-//-erated // in yours, and 
would certainly put out the Attorney General's torch — with 
which exceptions I shall be content to find either of your 
specimens on the Capitol when I go to Congress again in 
the year 1832." 

104 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 
To Richard Rush. 

" Philadelphia 28 September 1816. 
" Dear Rush, — . . . You see we could not even put 
him [Mr. Dallas] in nomination here, hardly so at least, 
much less elect him, for Congress. We are shivered here 
to little atomies as Queen Mab, I believe it is, says, tho' I 
think the prospect for next year is somewhat more encour- 
aging. It is obvious that Pennsylvania will then undergo 
one of her great political convulsions, such as those of 98, 
1805 & 1808, but my present impression is, a remote one, 
to be sure, that all will end well, and not the worse for the 
purification of the tempest. The Aurora is active, mahg- 
nant, and, within the banks of the Schuylkill & Delaware, 
efficacious too. That paper is too powerful for the Press. 
The son writes as much and better than the father, and 
they have nothing else to do but to compose their para- 
graphs & columns whereas the other Editor is not only 
alone, without the same readiness with his style, but en- 
grossed besides with a power of advertising patronage and 
other means of making money to which he bends his 
force. His second letter in answer to young Duane shows 
what he could if he would, but instead of composing two 
or three sheets a day he does not favor us with more than 
as many lines generally, and they are not powerful in 
proportion to their brevity. I doubt whether even Seybert 
& Anderson, who are on both tickets, will be elected, so 
deep and bitter are the dissentions now prevailing. The 
Clinton project I am told was completely mortified at Car- 
lisle, tho' they say old Hiester is at the bottom of it as I 
see Reed is at the top. ..." 



»o5 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 



To Richard Rush. 

" Philadelphia 23 April 1817. 
"Dear Rush, — . . . We are beginning to be quite 
animated in Pennsylvania with the canvass for Governor. 
My friend Sergeant (Tom), who is a partisan, allows Mr. 
Hiester to cross the Susquehanna with a majority of seven 
thousand, picked up principally in Philadelphia, Lancaster 
and Berks, where it is supposed his name will preponder- 
ate heavily, and then overcomes him, nevertheless, by a 
tramontane vote which is to devour the 7000 and leave a 
final balance of 13000 in favor of Mr. Findlay. It is an 
important election. Should Mr. Hiester succeed, I pre- 
sume the plan would be a coalition with Governor Clinton 
to secure all the Eastern and middle States to Maryland 
included for his presidency in 1821. That would yield 
about 118 votes. Gov. Snyder has certainly lost ground 
latterly, especially in this quarter where some of his late 
appointments have been shocking, for instance Armstrong 
to be a Judge. Perhaps too the setting sun is always apt 
to be shorn of some of his radiance. Sergeant says that 
Armstrong and such appointments are made thro' Mr. 
Boileau's influence to bring odium on Mr. Findlay, who 
succeeds to the support of Mr. Snyder's party tho' it is 
generally considered that he succeeds against the Gov- 
ernor's wishes. To say the least of our approaching strug- 
gle it is more stirring than any since that of 1808, and a 
much more doubtful one than that of 18 12. To surrender 
all this side of the Allegheny into Mr. Hiester's hands is 
giving up a very strong first position. . . ." 



106 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 
To RuFUS King. 

" Philadelphia 27 June 1S18. 

"My dear Sir, — ... I may say without a compli- 
ment, that, as far as I have heard it mentioned, your late 
admirable speech on the new navigation act has been 
universally and highly commended for its information, 
liberality and method. I read it with uncommon pleasure 
as an excellent specimen of what a parliamentary discourse 
ought to be, and a most powerful argument on an impor- 
tant subject. If it should prove to be your valedictory, it 
is an enviable close to an elevated public life ; and if not, 
it is the best testimonial that can be afforded that such a 
public life should end only with the close of life itself. 

" For the last three or four years a scene of professional 
occupation which commands all my time has deprived me 
of the occasion, and indeed almost the faculty, certainly 
the fondness I used to feel for sociable correspondence : 
but of none of the fondness with which I shall never cease 
to cherish the recollections and proofs of your intercourse 
and eminence ; and tho' unable to write you letters, in 
token of my respect and regard I am . . ." 

To Richard Rush. 

" Philadelphia 23 February 1823. 

"Dear Rush, — I left Washington at six o'clock on 
friday morning, and, after 33 hours incessant riding in the 
mail stage, got home yesterday to dinner. When I passed 
the Susquehanna on the 4th of this month it was free from 
ice and we were carried over in a ferryboat — Night before 
last I walked over on as fine a bridge of ice as can be, 
strong & dry. 

" My stay in Washington was one week less than I had 
reckoned on, and I have returned fortunately before the 

107 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

roads break up, when as you know the travelling for some 
days is very bad. 

" Feeling, as I have for some time past, that the balance 
of trade has been with you for the last twelve month, now 
that you have got at last into the true currency for corre- 
spondence, with your Canning and Wellington and 
Bentham dinners, as well as other such very agreeable 
consignments, and not chusing to be under such obligation 
as I felt without some sort of return, I determined to write 
down every day something of the Washington small talk 
for your amusement, supposing that no coin would be 
more acceptable to you & Mrs. R., and that the smaller 
the better. The foregoing * eight &. twenty pages are the 

result. 

"Yours very sincerely" 

" Wednesday 5 February 182J. — The Drawing room 
this Evening neither so crowded, nor, I think, so pleasant 
as I have known such assemblies formerly. Mr. Adams, 
Mr. Calhoun & Mr. Thompson f were there, not Mr. 

* I have taken the liberty of transposing this letter and 
introducing it before the diary, which it follows in the 
original. It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that 
Mr. Rush was then minister to England. Mr. Monroe 
was near the middle of his second term as President, and 
intrigues were already rife for the succession. The foot- 
notes are marginal notes by Mr. Ingersoll, evidently added 
at the time the diary was written ; explanatory notes by 
myself are indicated by my initials. 

f Smith Thompson, of New York, Secretary of the Navy, 
formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York ; 
soon appointed to the United States Supreme Court. — W. 
M. M. 

loS 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Crawford — all the Judges except Washington and Todd, 
the latter detained at home by a fall said to be serious — 
Mr. Clay in fine spirits — I understand that he talks unre- 
servedly of his prospects of the Presidency and says that 
he is confident of his success. France represented by 
Count de Menou and old Mr. Petry, England by Mr. 
Canning, Russia by Mr. Ellisen, Sweden by Baron Stack- 
elberg, I don't know whether the Mexican minister* was 
there, Mr. Anduagaf spends the winter at New York. I 
saw Mrs. Mason's fine black eyes at a distance but had 
not an opportunity of speaking to her. 

" 6 February. — Went to Court this morning for the first 
time — There is an uncommon number of lawyers here this 
term — Mr. Emmet, Mr. Cheves, who is now a member of 
the Philadelphia bar, Mr. Webster, who, I think, may be 
considered since Pinkney's death as the most eminent 
practitioner J in this court, Mr. Ogden, Mr. Blake of Bos- 
ton, Mr. Rowan and two Hardins of Kentucky, Mr. 
Harper, Mr. Winder, Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Sergeant, and 
others whom I do not know or remember — There is some 
confusion in the business owing to the sickness of the 
Attorney General, who is again unable to attend, as he 
was also at the last term.g 



* Don Jose Manuel Zozaya, the first minister from inde- 
pendent Mexico, had been received by the President on 
December 12, 1822. — W, M. M. 

f Chevalier Don Joaquin Anduaga, minister from Spain. 
— W. M. M. 

J " I think Genl. Harper has done the most business." 

g " He has got well & attends. They say Pinkney was 
killed by his physician's giving him an emetic when his 
complaint was apoplectic." 

109 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" About 3 o'clock I went into the house of representa- 
tives where the galleries were crowded, and nearly all the 
Senate, having adjourned, in attendance to hear as was 
expected an angry, personal debate. It appears that 
some papers communicated to the house last Session from 
the Treasury have been subjected to alterations, by marks, 
omissions, marginal notes and underscoring. Mr. Cook 
of Illinois, who is remarkable for his active hostility to Mr. 
Crawford brought up this affair with a resolution for en- 
quiry with a view to his prejudice. The special committee 
reported an entire exculpation of Mr. Crawford and his 
clerk Asbury Dickins, and Gales & Seaton the printers of 
the house, who were the persons implicated. On this 
result some of Mr. Crawford's hot friends wish to turn the 
battery on Mr. Cook, and as it appears that a member of 
Congress first broached the accusation by an article in a 
Newspaper called the Washington Republican which is 
published here by McKinney, their effort is to compel a 
disclosure of that Member's name (which is withheld), with 
an avowed view to his expulsion. Yesterday when the 
resolution was moved, some very insulting expressions 
were used by Mr. Gilmer, of Georgia, and some strong 
insinuations thrown out by Mr. Hardin & Gov. Wright, 
against little Cook, as he is called, who defended himself 
with considerable ability. The gentlemen where I lodge 
thought there must be duels. But the debate to-day was 
peaceable enough. I heard Archer, McLane, Saunders, 
Sterling, Smythe, Reid, Tatnall, Ross & Rhea, some of 
whom, particularly Archer & McLane spoke very well. 
Finally the motion for another committee of enquiry was 
adopted by a large majority. Among other listeners in 
the lobby was a very old gentleman in very oldfashioned 
cloathes with a long goldheaded cane in his hand who 

no 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

on enquiry I found to be John Taylor of Caroline, the 
lientham, one may say, of this country, now in his seven- 
tieth year, as I heard him say, a little vvrongheaded in his 
refinements, but yet a highly respectable & even exemplary 
character. Randolph was there coiled up in a large great 
coat, silent, he says sick, and, as others say, very much 
out of spirits. I hoped to have found him overflowing 
with England and entertainment but I am told he does 
not talk at all. By the way Mrs. Decatur has resumed 
her gaiety, and sees a great deal of company at Kalorama, 
tho' she does not go into it abroad, I understand — Further 
by the way the French legation, as Count de Menou ex- 
presses it, have been connected by marriage lately with 
the American administration, in the union of a Mr. de 
Bresson with Miss Thompson one of the daughters of the 
Secretary of the Navy, which has called forth a week of 
festivities from rather a calm winter. My landlady — Mrs. 
Wilson's account of it is that they were first married 3 
times, then withdrew for a week from all society and ob- 
servation, even that of their nearest connexion, and then 
attended balls every night in the succeeding week. 

"7 February. — I had some interesting conversation to- 
day with Mr. Poinsett* concerning Mexico, and Cuba 
where he has lately been on public service. The climate 
& soil of Mexico, he says, are delightful. The finest 
market in the world — fruits & vegetables of all kinds all 
the year round — plenty of game of all sorts & excellent 
meats. But the population the most ignorant & wretched. 

* Joel R. Poinsett, then a member of Congress from 
South Carolina, had recently been on a special mission to 
Mexico, and some years before had been on public busi- 
ness through much of South America. — W. M. M. 

Ill 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

The Lazzaroni of Naples are incomparably superior to 
the class called Lepros * in the city of Mexico. The 
traveUing execrable. The Mexican minister who is here 
almost frozen by the cold weather, f is astonished at the 
excellence of the taverns & the accommodations for travel- 
ling. Mr. P. represents Iturbide as an abominable despot, 
who was a bloody executor of the Spanish power while it 
prevailed, and is now as tyrannical a master himself. 
His election was a mere contrivance accomplished by two 
regiments and the Lepros — he is an usurper of the most 
atrocious character who maintains his supremacy by 
means as bad as those by which he obtained it. There 
are about 12 thousand regular soldiers throughout the 
Mexican Empire, and a good militia, but they are inimical 
to Iturbide. Mr. Poinsett thinks his power can not last — 
he has placed money in this country with a view no doubt 
to funds in case of his downfall. The next experiment 
will be of a republic — and finally the several provinces 
will set up each one for itself. Such is Mr. P.'s opinion. 
Santa Ana is a man of no principle nor talent — but 
Guadalupe de Victoria J is an honest & popular repub- 
lican. 

" Cuba, he says, is ripe for Union with the U. S. when- 
ever Spain is forced to change her constitution. Even the 
old Spaniards ; and the Creoles to a man — he had direct 



* This is the word used by Mr. IngersoU, but I have 
not been able to ascertain its meaning. Should it not 
read mestizos ? — W. M. M. 

f " He spends all the cold weather in bed — by which he 
will be bedridden soon." 

X Guadalupe de Victoria became President of Mexico 

in 1824.— W. M. M. 

112 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

communications to this effect with many of their most in- 
fluential characters. They do not however desire any 
change until Spain compels it by some radical alterations 
in her present constitution. Whenever she does Cuba 
will ask for our protection, and for admission into the 
union. If we reject them, they will then apply to Eng- 
land. But at present Mr. P. says they are extremely 
averse to her superintendence. There have been two 
English agents at Havana for some time. Cuba has had 
an agent here in communication with our government, his 
name is Morales. 

" It is a very momentous measure for the decision of this 
country. Much may be said against it. But I have long 
tho't that whenever Cuba presents herself, without any 
forcing or manoeuvring on our part, we must e'en take the 
good the Gods provide us. The Western States are all 
anxiety for it — to them Cuba in British hands would be 
intolerable. The Southern States have no objection. The 
middle and east would consent, tho' the latter perhaps 
not freely, as it would add immensely to a preponderance 
which they see with jealousy & dread already. 

"I understand that Gen. Jackson has been nominated 
Minister to Mexico without knowing whether he will accept 
the appointment ; and that it was first offered to Mr. Brown 
who declined it. Benton Prevost is before Senate as 
Charge to Chili, or Lima, I forget which. But they 
threaten to negative the nomination if not withdrawn. 

" 8 February. — Water froze in my chamber last night 
close along side of a fire which when I went to bed at 
eleven o'clock was a large one. All January was open 
pleasant weather, but there have been some days this 
week of that fierce cold for which I think Washington is 
remarkable. This is a bitter cold day. 
8 IIJ 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

"Last evening at Mrs. Brown's ball Mr. Clay went up 
to the table where Mr. Adams was playing chess with 
Judge Thruston, and said, with that Kentucky frankness 
which was so much admired by Ld. Castlereagh, Well, 
Mr. Adams, always playing great games.* 

"Among a number of persons there of your particular 
acquaintance were Mrs. Mason and her son the Secretary 
of Legation to Mexico, Mrs. Hay enceinte, Miss Nancy 
Spear, Mr. Payne Tod who reports your friends Mr. & 
Mrs. Madison as perfectly well, Miss Hopkinson who is 
on a visit to Mrs. Adams, besides the thrice married bride 
and her tall good looking french husband, with hosts of 
Secretaries, attaches, dancers & figurantes of all ages and 
conditions. My friend Mr. King, I find, is become a con- 
stant frequenter of all these revels — looking remarkably 
well. It is a good thing for Washington that Mr. Brown 
declined the Mexican mission, if he did, as they say he 
did, for his house sustains the largest & best part of the 
American hospitality of this holyday metropolis. Very 
handsome dinners and very frequent evening parties of 
all kinds, Sunday Evenings and all, notwithstanding Mr. 
Mcllvaine's preaching against them to his well disciplined 
congregation at Georgetown. 

"p February. — My political oracle Miss Spear, without 
indicating her individual preference, says that present 
prospects flatter Mr. Adams's election to the presidency, 
and it is certain that he has gained a great deal of ground 
since this time last year when he stood low. It was 
confidently said that Maine to a certainty, probably 
Newhampshire, and possibly Connecticut would vote for 

* "The wags say that Mr. Adams is writing a long 
answer to the attack." 

114 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Cra%vford, and that Vermont would unite with New York, 
pronounced to be undoubtedly with him. But late appear- 
ances seem to say that all New England will vote for 
Adams, which gives him a very firm footing at least, and, 
strange tho' it may sound, I am assured by persons to be 
relied upon that Baltimore is with him, together with many 
other parts, perhaps most, of Maryland. These things 
shew that the members of Congress neither represent nor 
regulate the sentiments of their constituents on this great 
question, which for sometime will absorb all others ; for 
Holmes, Chandler and Hill the leading members from 
Maine, Smith, Lloyd & Kent, the leading members from 
Maryland, are supposed to be, if not committed, at all 
events, attached to Crawford — Adams is by no means un- 
popular, Crawford is by no means popular, in Pennsyl- 
vania, yet Lowrie,* who is now, I take it, the most eminent 
& able man of the State, and Roberts & Lacock, and, as 
I am told and believe, most of the standard democrats 
there are the advocates of Crawford ; and Ingham, Rogers, 
Dallas and all those who rally round the Franklin Gazette, 
after submitting, as they know they must, to renounce 
their nomination Calhoun, would rather I believe, go over 
to Clay than to Adams. Crawford's friends, I am assured, 
are the majority now in both houses of Congress — how it 
will be in the next Congress I don't know. 

" I had some curious chat the day before yesterday 
with a personage who told me that Calhoun had no idea 
of a hope till he found that Adams cut so small a figure ; 
and that then he went into Pennsylvania for a nomination, 
while poor Lowndes, notwithstanding his high character 

* Walter Lowrie, then United States Senator from Penn- 
sylvania. — W. M. M. 

"5 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

& feelings, did the same in Carolina, where his premature 
nomination was the consequence of a race between him & 
Calhoun for the Southern interest. Till that autumn it 
was supposed that the candidates would be Adams and 
Crawford. But Gov. Clarke having beaten Crawford in 
Georgia, it was said that he was down there and of course 
every where else : on which the two gentlemen of South 
Carolina put in for the vacant Southern interest. 

" In all these reports to you I state what I have heard, 
not what I think. My intelligence is of course derived 
from my associates, and my digest of it naturally tinctured 
by my own feelings. I have my predilection, which you 
may guess if you can, and very likely you have, or believe 
you have at any rate. But you must give me credit for an 
endeavour to impart intelligence as I gather it, and not 
my own views, or Avishes — I never have concealed them 
and never shall, especially from you. But in this Wash- 
ington Diary composed for your edification &; amusement, 
I am a chronicler et ne plus ultra. 

" I forgot to add to Mr. Poinsett's communications that 
he thinks our pirate expedition a folly. He was at the 
little place called Regla over against Havana, inhabited 
by pirates, who sell their booty to the people of Havana 
almost without disguise. Whenever necessary they are 
fishermen, coasters, market people and what not. When 
Porter's squadron appears they will be sailing about in 
their piratical cruisers as the craft of the island — how can 
he capture them. And if he should commit any strong- 
handed measure ashore, it will disturb & mar that attach- 
ment to this country which is now pervading and powerful 
there. 

" I don't know whether you will agree with me that this 
Expedition is another proof to the almost annual evidence 

ii6 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

the U.S. afford of their belHgerent tendencies. In i8il 
there was Gen, Harrison's war in Indiana. In 1812 '13 
& '14 the war with England. In 181 5 the war with 
Algiers. In 1816 or '17 the war with the Seminoles & 
Spain. And now the war with the pirates. Our temple 
of Janus is hardly ever closed. We are now asking 
Mexico to extend our frontier to the Colorado, I think 
it is. 

" I had a tete a tete of two or three hours with the Presi- 
dent yesterday : in the course of which he went into a long 
detail of his losses & incumbrances by public service be- 
ginning with his french mission in '94 — of his English ex- 
penditures many of the items are suspended yet, but he 
hopes they will be allowed, perhaps by Act of Congress, 
when he retires, as he will do, after 40 years of public 
life, poor, and probably in debt — his Albemarle Estate 
has been lately valued at 67 thousand dollars exclusive of 
the improvements — he means to sell that property if he 
can and live in Loudoun where he has been building & 
improving — he assured me that he paid $1912 for the use 
of the mail stage alone on his visit to the eastward from 
Philadelphia to Portland & Sackett's Harbour, which he 
thinks ought to be reimbursed to him, as he declares that 
he made that tour with a view to the promotion of the 
public defences — he says that Mr. Pinckney & he were 
induced by the defenceless state of the country' to sign the 
Treaty which Mr. Jefferson rejected, and that in his Rich- 
mond letter, as he called it, he announced the policy which 
he has since pursued. 

" His whole discourse was a fine lesson for young states- 
men, the point & moral of the whole being that poverty & 
ruin are most apt to be at least among their wages — he 
said he was sure that the Secretaries must all be great 

117 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

losers, as it is impossible for them to attend to private 
concerns. They ought to have in his opinion houses at 
the public charge & ten thousand Dollars a year. I 
enquired of Mr. Jefferson's affairs. Mr. Monroe says he 
has lost $20,000 by suretyship for Wilson C. Nicholas. I 
enquired also of Mr. Madison's affairs who is free from 
debt Mr. Monroe says. He took the advice of his cabinet, 
so he told me, at the beginning of this session, after 
coming to a determination himself, as to the present 
system of expensive entertainment by the President. They 
dissuaded him from relinquishing it, on the ground that it 
would be blamed as meanness and that he had better 
go on as he began — he asked my opinion. I told him 
that I tho't he had better go on as he began, but that 
I had long said that it was a wrong system and that the 
Presidents would see the necessity of beginning by a re- 
linquishment of it. They must see company no doubt. 
But I should suppose that a dinner a month would do 
instead of 3 a week — perhaps they might have done 
with their promiscuous entertainments altogether and 
invite only their old acquaintances to occasional din- 
ners. 

"After all this moralising he kept me to dinner. We 
had Judge Dade of the Northern Neck, Judge Johnson of 
Louisiana, of the Senate, Col. Benton * of N. Carolina of 
the H. of R., Dr. Everett the President's new private Sec- 
retary & Mr. Hay — and some North Carolina wine called 
Scuppernong very pleasant, something like Muscat. I 
drank nearly 3 glasses of it, from which I am now suffer- 

* It is not clear to whom this refers. Colonel Thomas 
H. Benton was Senator from Missouri, and there was no 
other Benton in the House. — W. M. M. 

iiS 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

ing with an indigestion the common consequence of wine 
to those who are not in the habit of taking it. 

"Among the charges allowed foreign ministers Mr. 
Monroe particularised postage to complain of the very- 
small sum allowed him for it, and said that Mr. King's 
charge had been 350 pounds sterling, I think it was, and 
that Sir Francis Baring had paid 2000 guineas a year for 
postage. This I had heard him state before. I one day 
mentioned it afterwards to young Francis Baring the son 
of Alexander Baring who has been here, perhaps you 
know him, who said in answer, yes, it has been 4000 
pounds in a year. Can that be possible ? $ 1 9000 & upwards 
paid by a house for the postage of one year's correspond- 
ence ! I am aware that they charge arbitrarily, by esti- 
mate, and not exactly, but even granting that, it seems to 
be impossible. It far outdoes poor Mr. Monroe's mail- 
hire, blackmail, as he might truly call it. Bache* waited 
on him in Philad. he says and informed him that the 
P.M.G. had given orders for his transportation by the 
mail which was at his service for the purpose. The Presi- 
dent said it would be very acceptable but he had no rights 
to it for nothing, and when his bill which he insisted on 
paying came in it was nearly $2000 for that one item — he 
paid besides the horsekeep &c. 

"12 February. — My conversation with the President 
was so long & multifarious that I dare say many things 
occurring in it will come to my recollection hereafter as 
some do now which I did not think of yesterday. I told 
him that I would resign in your favor, if you chose to come 
to the bar again and to take the district Attorneyship as 
an introduction : and that I should endeavour to have you 



* Richard Bache, Postmaster at Philadelphia.— W. M. M. 

119 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

nominated as you were before by Pennsylvania for the 
Vice-presidency — to neither of which suggestions, I think, 
did he make any reply. 

" In a long talk I had the day before yesterday with the 
Sec. of the Navy about the Presidency I think I gathered 
his inclination for Mr. Adams, tho' of course he was very 
wary in what fell from him. We agreed in his eminent 
attainments but I suggested the strong indications at 
present of his having nearly all the federal votes, and all 
those of the most offensive effect in party estimates, such 
for instance as Hopkinson & Walsh who appear to rally to 
him instinctively, the result of which would be as in the 
cases of Clinton & Hiester to force an attempt at coalition 
& distribution always impracticable & pernicious. Mr. 
Thompson seemed to think that Mr. Adams might avoid 
that, but said if he did not his downfall in 4 years was 
inevitable. I dare say he might avoid it in framim^ his 
administration, but I don't believe it would be possible to 
do so in the course of his administration. A large, intelli- 
gent, respectable and bold party would be heard and felt, 
and he would have either to gratify them or to break with 
them. There are no other alternatives. As you have 
often said there are but two parties, between which every 
politician must choose. Otis is in nomination for Governor 
of Massachusetts, and I believe he will be elected against 
Eustis his competitor who has been forced to give a pledge 
of his adhesion to Adams. Now see at once what a 
monster such a state of things is. In the federal address 
announcing Ods' nomination his principal merit is declared 
to be his having attended the Hartford Convention. All 
Eustis' democracy could not save him from submission to 
pledging himself to a man the loudest of whose adherents 
in New England will be the partisans of the Hartford Con- 

120 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

vention. To be sure, as Mr. Thompson justly remarked, 
Adams can't prevent the federahsts voting for him, and 
electing him should it be so, but can he prevent their in 
part at least ruling him afterwards ? if they should be able 
to say to him, we made you President. 

"I understand that the Spanish mission was offered to 
Wirt before it was given to Nelson : and I believe that Cheves 
is to be at the head of the Commission to be organized under 
the late arrangement for indemnifying the owners of Slaves.* 

"14 February. — I dined yesterday at Mr. Adams's 
with a large party of Members, most of them, I imagine, 
unknown to you, except Mr. Holmes of Maine and per- 
haps Mr. Stevenson of Virginia. I mentioned what Jo- 
seph Bonaparte told me a few days ago that in his opinion 
the reasons for a French or rather a Bourbon invasion of 
Spain are stronger than I thought, i. because Spain is 
a perfecdy conquerable country as he insists — 2. at this 
moment at least half the nation is with the King — 3. the 
Bourbons must go to war with free principles or fall by 
them, and they had better do so now while they can have the 
aid of the holy alHance than hereafter when it may be dis- 
solved or indisposed — 4. a respectable army of french may 
be found faithful to the Bourbons, altho' more than half the 
nation may be disaffected to them : and a Bourbon prince at 
the nominal head of such an army might reap some laurels 
of which the Bourbons are much in want — 5. on the 7 July, 
so Joseph assured me he knew, the Cortes were so much 
alarmed by the insurrection of the troops that they sent to 
the King & offered terms, but he answered no, he would 
have no terms but all he wished. — Mr. Adams denied 
both the fact & the argument. Mr. Poinsett too dis- 



'o ' 



* "Since appointed." 
121 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

credits it. By the way he says that the Emperor Alex- 
ander frequently spoke to him of the conquest of Turkey 
as a favorite measure. Mr. Adams seemed to think that 
there is no reason to apprehend England's attempting to 
take Cuba, but in the event of war between France & 
Spain much more reason to think that France will, Mr. 
Adams ascribes his uninterrupted health during the several 
sickly seasons he has lived in Washington to swimming — 
he walks a mile to the Potomac for 8 successive mornings 
from 4 to 7 o' clock according as the tide serves, and swims 
from 1 5 to 40 minutes — then walks home again — for the 6 
mornings of low tide he abstains — swimming 8 days out 
of 14. I have no doubt that it is an excellent system.* 
He lives in the house on F. Street in which Mr. Madison 
used to live and afterwards Cutts, to which he has added 
several large rooms, another house in fact, that makes it 
spacious enough. Every Tuesday Evening during the 
Session Mr. Adams sees company, and every assembly is 
a dancing one — as indeed all their large evening parties 
are here. There was a large one at Mr. Calhoun's last 
night. There was one at Taylor's on Monday — and week 
before last I believe there was one every evening. Of 
your kindred there were last night Mrs. Mason with her 
son & 2 daughters, the 2d & 3d — Miss Lloyd, and Miss 
Steele a very pretty girl. I had appropriated this morn- 
ing to walking to Georgetown & paying my respects to 
them, and afterwards perhaps to Kalorama but the rain 
has kept me in my chamber till now two o'clock, which, 
by the bye, is not long after breakfast in Washington. 
Mr. Adams gave us a very good dinner yesterday, there 
were 4 servants in waiting ; and as he gives such dinners 

* " He is extremely thin." 
122 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

at least once a week, I believe, during the session, I dare 
say the President is right in thinking that $6000 a year 
does not pay for all his hospitality. It seems to me that 
the dinner giving system has increased very much since I 
first knew this great watering place — will yon let me call 
it — where amusement is a business, a need, to which 
almost every body is given up from 5 o'clock till bed 
time. — All the Secretaries give dinners &; balls frequently, 
I fancy weekly, and niany other persons who, I should 
think, can ill afford it./ The court & bar dine to-day with 
the President. In my opinion a Judge should never dine 
out in term time except on Saturday or Sunday, if then. 
In England I am told they hardly ever do : and I fancy 
the pillars of Westminster hall would marvel much if they 
could see the Supreme court of the U. S. begin a day's 
session, aye, after robing & taking their places, by re- 
ceiving from the Marshal their cards of invitation and 
taking up their pens to answer them before the list of 
cases is called for hearing. I asked Mr. Adams yesterday 
if he ever met the judges at dinner in England, he said he 
had Ld, Ellenbro' once & Sr. Wm. Scott often. What is 
your better experience ? I should like to know and I wish 
you would be particular in informing me. 

" Friday Evening. — We had a prodigious shew of Law- 
yers at dinner at the President's, among them Mrs. Rush's 
brother who attends the Supreme court to argue a case in 
which seventeen * millions of acres of land are in contro- 
versy. Young Pinkney was there, the Russian Secretary, 
with a large snuffbox, the foolish fellow, I could say, to 
unhinge his nerves & spoil his voice. They say he's a 

* ' ' Seventy — what wd. an English lawyer say of an ar- 
gument involving more land than all England, I believe?" 

123 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

clever young man tho I must confess my first impressions, 
in which I allow that the snuffbox has great weight, are 
not favorable. Gen. Van Rensselaer was also there, and 
a Mr. Elliott of Boston, I don't know whether of the bar. 
Excepting them the whole company of nearly thirty were 
Judges and Lawyers. We had two kinds of very good 
American wine, the Scuppernong of North Carolina, of a 
light color and taste like Muscat, and what is called Con- 
stantia made within 5 miles of Georgetown. 

" The bar had a meeting to-day at which Mr. Wirt pre- 
sided and Messrs. Clay, Harper and Winder were appointed 
a Committee to devise means of procuring a Law Library, of 
which the want is deplorable here, and also of obtaining if 
practicable an establishment in which all the lawyers at- 
tending the Supreme Court may be accommodated with 
lodgings together, which would be a convenience I dare say. 

• ' Saturday Morning ij February. — Genl. Harper who sat 
next to me at dinner yesterday suggested a notable project 
indeed for obviating the many difficuUies supposed to 
attend President' s Elections, that the President before he 
retires should designate 20 young men not exceeding 25 
years of age from whom he should select one to be Vice- 
President, the said youth to begin his functions forthwith 
as V. P., the other 19 to remain in reserve to take his 
place in case of his death, he to be V. P. for 20 years, and 
thus educated at 45 to become President without any 
other choice and to remain so for 20 or 10 or any other 
given number of years, then, after in like manner desig- 
nating 20 other Presidential colts for training, to retire. 
Was ever such nonsense from so sensible a man ! * 



* ' ' Was it not meant as a satire ?' ' [Marginal note by 

Mr. Rush.] 

124 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

"/d February. — I called yesterday to pay my respects 
to Gov. Lloyd * who is established with all his family at 
O'Neale's in the same apartments in which I spent the 
autumn and winter of 14-15. Mr. Lloyd has been very 
sick but is much better, he is & has been all the session 
invalided with flying gout. It is delightful to me to hear 
him talk politics, so much tone, openness and aboriginal 
principle. He is a strong advocate of the election of 
Crawford on the basis of the old democratic party which 
he says must rally & do it by a caucus here, or surrender 
its ascendancy & combination. He thinks that Mr. IVIon- 
roe has done more harm to that party than was ever done 
by any man, by his era of good feelings : and I confess I 
seconded cordially his opinion that parties on principles 
are the only alternative for parties for men, parties for 
place and parties for the East, the South & the West. I 
asked him how Maryland stands, and if Mr. Adams has 
not the ascendant here. He said that his adherents had 
been taking great pains to forestall public suffrage and 
that the Yankies at Baltimore where they have the news- 
papers have made considerable impressions. But that 
they were disappointed in the election of the Governor 
and General Smith, and that when the people come to 
understand that the bulk of Adams's adherents are fed- 
eralists he does not believe they will submit to such lead- 
ers. He acknowledged however that many of the most 
established democrats are adherents of Adams. I did not 
hear him say so, but I believe that even your old & steady 
predecessor Judge Duval f is of the number. 

* Edward Lloyd, ex-Governor of Maryland, was then 
United States Senator from that State.— W. M. Vl. 

f Gabriel Duval, one of the Justices of the United States 

1-5 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

"My visit to Gov. Lloyd was a suitable introduction to 
dinner at Mr. Crawford's where we had Judges Johnson & 
Duval, Gov. Wright, Fenton Mercer, and many other 
members Judges and I believe district attorneys. Our 
host gave us one proof of his right to succeed Mr. Jefferson 
in not only a very handsome dinner, which is common 
enough here, with a service of plate &c,, but a very good 
one, the meats well selected & well served, warm and 
well dressed, in that respect at least very superior if not 
in contrast to the President's dinner the day before. I 
should not forget among other enjoyments comfortable 
rooms, whereas at the President's they were miserably 
cold, so much so that Mr. Clay said they should be better 
warmed in his tenure. From Mercer who sat on one side 
of me I understood that when in London he knew of 
Pinkney's going into the fields to declaim and attending 
the debating clubs ; and from Mr. Hamilton who succeeds 
poor Lowndes I learned what I did not know before that 
he died a few days after getting to sea and that they com- 
mitted his body to the deep — a painful aggravation, I 
should suppose, of his wife's feelings. Gov. Wright* is 
rather younger if anything than he was ten years ago, 
tho' now in his seventieth year. He married about a 
twelvemonth ago a very fine young woman I am told, and 
had a child born about nine months & ten days after- 
wards. Stillborn, but that's nothing, said he to me, for 
I'll soon have another. I don't find that there is any 
falling off in his old attachment to talk of things not com- 

Supreme Court. Mr. Rush had succeeded him in 1811 
as Comptroller of the Treasury. — W. M. M. 

* Robert Wright, then a Representative in Congress 
from Maiyland.— W. M. M. 

126 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

monly the topics of conversation & to call them all by 
their naked names. 

" Mr. Holmes of Maine who comes you know from the 
most abnebulated [?] East, ultima Thule, has his wife & 
daughter with him, good looking & I believe well bred 
females enough, but of most puissant bodily dimensions 
which has induced Mr. Lloyd of Boston to call them 
children of the mist. 

"The President told me the other day, what I had 
heard him say before, that he never reads the Newspapers. 
He mentioned to me in 1817 that he had never read any- 
thing like a history of the American Revolution, I imagine 
he has the smallest library of perhaps any eminent man 
in this country, which is not, either, the meridian of large 
private libraries. What a singular contrast this makes 
between him & Mr. Madison or Mr. Jefferson or Mr. 
Adams, who read everything and limit their collections 
of books only by their means. Mr. Adams has an ex- 
cellent library in the Department of State, on which I 
constantly draw, being so near it, for books. I began last 
night Judge Johnson's Life of Greene which I got there — 
a work composed of the best & most authentic materials, 
but written in the hard and ambitious and vulgar, tho' 
often nervous style of his compositions. I am well as- 
sured that Mr. Rodney,* who is going to Buenos Ayres, 
is not worth a cent in the world except from 15 to 20 
thousand dollars worth of books, with 12 or 13 children to 
boot. I have eleven children said Mr. Clay to me — I 
have but eight said I. Mr. Hamilton told me yesterday 
that the 12 Judges of South Carolina have 96 children, 

* Caesar Augustus Rodney was appointed minister to the 
La Plata provinces January 27, 1823. — W. M. M. 

127 



vV 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and the 12 directors of some charitable endowment in 
Charleston which he mentioned but I forget the name of, 
average ten a piece. ^- 

" I paid a visit too yesterday to a family living at the 
other end of O'Neale's Establishment whose situation is 
another of the countless testimonials of the dangers of 
political ambition. Anthony Morris, whom you will re- 
member, and his daughters Mrs. Nonne and Miss Morris. 
He who was once Speaker of our Penna. Senate and 
always a dignified gentlemanlike & I believe respectable 
man now writes as a clerk under his son in law. Captain 
Nonne, who himself holds some subordinate place in the 
Treasury or the Commissariat. But they all attend the 
balls of which there are to be seven or eight this week and 
I am bound to suppose enjoy themselves. 

'•Monday Night 17 Feby. — A very pleasant dinner yes- 
terday with my friend Poinsett who eats at the french 

cook's in the * buildings. We had a good french 

meal, I imagine the best wine in Washington, some of his 
Carolina A. D. and a sociable party of young gentlemen, 
all batchelors together and as merry as crickets. Gen. 
Van Rensselaer, the patroon, a natural gentleman, amiable 
without study, Louis McLane, who seems to rank high 
here, acting chairman of the Ways & Means since Genl. 
Smith's translation to the Senate, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Pat- 
terson, Mr. Cambreling, Captain Creighton of the Navy, 
& Mr. Insinger of Holland. So many good & memorable 
things were said that I have not time to-night as it is now 
past my usual hour of retirement to make even extracts 
from them. McLane told me that Randolph is really ill, 
as he thinks, & declining. I believe I have mentioned 



* Illegible.— W. M. M. 
12S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

before that he never speaks or even talks, tho' he says he 
means to return to England in IMay as he considers it 
useful for his health. 

"In the evening I went to Mrs. Brown's, where Mrs. 
Cutts was the only lady, except Miss Hopkinson who is 
staying there. But we had Mr. Addington & Mr. Wilmot, 
of the British legation, both well informed & well behaved 
men, old Petry, and other men enough to make up a 
circle. 

"I mentioned the other day that Mr. Adams has an 
addition to his house. I understand that he bo't the house 
and built the addition, which has become a very common 
style here, and is a striking proof of the prevailing pro- 
pensity to entertainment & gaiety. Mr. Brown's house is 
so, and if I am not mistaken some others ; like that which 
Mr. Monroe used to live in, now occupied by Mr. Can- 
ning — the additional apartments are literally appropriated 
to dinners & dances. The Russian is in Decatur's fine 
house. The french in what was Tench Ringgold's, where 
Poletica lived. 

" To-day I dined at Coyle's on the hill with Hemphill * 
& his mess. Clay, Cheves & I were guests, Messrs. 
Holmes, Winnf & Rankin of Mississippi, Mr. Parrott of 
N. Hampshire, Mr. Baylies of Massachusetts and Col. & 
Mrs. Wool were, I believe, at home. We had a very 
agreeable session to which Clay mainly contributed. I 
should add that his coadjutor in the dispute between Ken- 
tucky & Virginia Mr. Rowan was there. Clay says that 
Canning told him the day before yesterday, as I also 

* Joseph Hemphill, Representative in Congress from 
Pennsylvania. — W. M. M. 

f This name is hardly legible. — W. M. M. 
9 129 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

heard Mr. Adams state publickly, that England has no 
views on Cuba. Clay told him distinctly that we would 
fight for it should they attempt the possession, which sen- 
timent I find more general than I supposed. Mr. Baylies 
of Massachusetts a federalist is for it as he said this after- 
noon. The idea given out is that any English force going 
there is to protect it from the French who might try to 
take it, as I heard Mr. Adams say, in the event of war 
between France & Spain. 

"There were a good many slurs yesterday at the Presi- 
dent's style of living which is said to be shabby. Mrs. 
Wilson this eve'g entertained me with a budget of specifi- 
cations to this impeachment. 

" ig Febry. — I disposed of two of my causes yesterday 
and shall return home to-morrow or next day, as a third 
is fixed for to-day. A characteristic incident occurred to 
me in court yesterday. I enquired of that disobliging, 
lazy rapacious fellow the clerk for the rules, which, after 
some of his usual demurs he at length produced in a 
manuscript book every word of it in your handwriting, 
with your name written on the cover as a claim of owner- 
ship thus disregarded by this personage who has no copy 
of his own of the rules of his own court. I have bro't it 
home to my lodgings and have it now on the table. 

" Dined yesterday with Mr. Canning with Mr. Speaker 
Barbour who is neither a diner out nor a Speaker of the 
first lustre, and, from all I hear, will be in danger next 
winter of descending to the floor again, Messrs. Dickerson 
and Elliot of the Senate, Van Rensselaer, McLane, Condict 
of the H. of R., Cheves, Ogden, Blake of Boston, Captain 
Read of the Navy, Mr. Ellisen, Baron Maltitz, Messrs. 
Addington, Wilmot & Parish, who are of Mr. Canning's 
family, and perhaps some others whom I don't remember. 

130 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Great display of servants in white & purple liveries, of 
whom there were five, and two or three others not in 
livery, complete service of plate, considerable variety of 
wines &c. But I do not think the dinner was as good nor 
the entertainment as agreeable as Poletica's, where how- 
ever I felt more at home which maybe made the differ- 
ence. 

" A bill to settle the Vicepresident's * accounts equitably 
as you know the phrase is, in other words pretty much on 
his own terms, passed the H. of R. the day before yester- 
day in the most flattering manner, unanimously, and thro' 
3 readings the same day. There is no doubt of its passage 
thro' Senate. He retired yesterday as is the custom you 
know to let them choose a President protempore which 
will be done to-day, and goes home with the universal 
acknowledgement that his conduct this Session has been 
unexceptionable. I suppose you have heard that here- 
tofore it has not been so — he drank to excess, and was at 
times incapable of business. I rejoice at his reestablish- 
ment in character and ease as certainly there is no man to 
whom the late war is more indebted for its support. Mr. 
McLane told me at Poinsett's on Sunday that he believes 
Randolph drinks to excess, f either does or has, I forget 
which he said, and that it is the cause of his present sick- 
ness & despondency. 

" I did not attend at Mr. Adams' last evening nor shall 
I Mr. Monroe's to-night tho' the last drawing room this 
season — being surfeited, as I soon become of such suits. 
They are almost innumerable here, and, I believe, almost in- 

* Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York.— W. M. M. 
f "Somebody, I forget who, has since assured me it is 
not so." 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

dispensable, certainly very useful, in assembling the inhabi- 
tants stationary and temporary of this extensive residence. 

'* 20 Febrztary. — At dinner yesterday at Commodore 
Chauncey's we had the Vice President, the Sec. of the 
Navy, Messrs. Vandyke & \Vm. King of the Senate, 
Messrs. Morgan and Kirkland of N. York of the H. of 
R., Genl. Harper, Mr. Webster, Count de Menou, Mr. de 
Bresson, Mr. Petry, Mr. Ellisen & Baron Maltitz — and a 
pleasant entertainment. The Vice P. is a very agreeable 
man, very communicative, and amiable in his intercourse, 
and now, I suppose, in fine spirits — I fancy his friends 
have not quite abandoned his claims to the presidency. 
They were very promising at one time, but very slight at 
this time. I understand too that some effort will perhaps 
be made for Mr. Thompson, but it cannot possibly suc- 
ceed. He is a clever man, but rather too much of the 
chief Justice, precise & punctilious. They were talking 
yesterday of the monstrous extravagance of Congress in 
calling for Executive reports & printing them. Mr. 
Thompson instanced one of last Session by Mr. Holmes 
of Maine, which, I think he said, employed several clerks 
the whole summer and was not completed — the only 
object of it being to ascertain where the public vessels are 
built cheapest, east, middle, or south. Philadelphia and 
Humphries bear the bell. Gales & Seaton's reelecdon as 
public printers is to be opposed by a Mr. Way with whom 
it is said McKenney is in secret association. It is supposed 
that the friends of Adams & Calhoun will unite for Way 
against the friends of Crawford vodng for Gales & Seaton. 

"Mr. Lowrie, I hear, goes to Harrisburg next week to 
be present when the democratic convention meets on the 
4 March to nominate for Governor. The candidates are 
Br)'an, Shulze, Ingham, the State Treasurer, whose name 

132 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

I forget, Findlay, Darlington, Lacock and may be others. 
It seems to be understood that the question will be between 
Bryan and Shulze, and that Bryan will most likely be the 
man. Philadelphia is represented by delegates who are 
adherents of Ingham, but he has no chance. Geo. Dallas, 
who is one of them is now here and means to go hence to 
Harrisburg. 

" Clay has written a letter to Peter B. Riter which is to 
be published by him in the western parts of New York to 
vindicate himself from what is tho't to be a want of spirit 
or rather explicitness in his answer to Adams concerning 
the Mississippi at Ghent. The western people think that 
he ought to explain himself on that subject more decisively 
for which purpose this letter is to appear. It has been 
shewn about here to several of his friends. 

"Mr. Galliard was yesterday elected protempore presi- 
dent of the Senate by a large majority. Indeed there was 
no real opposition to him. His health is miserable. Con- 
gress is a bad place for Health. They sit all day in heated 
apartments without exercise or food and at evening dine 
for the most part inordinately. This routine to persons 
accustomed at home to early and plain meals and a suffi- 
ciency of exercise must be pernicious. I think it at least 
tended to the death of Lowndes : and I know that Dr. 
Physick is of that opinion. 

" The first cards I have seen in Washington this winter 
were last night at Chauncey's when I won a day's pay 
from Mr. Morgan at whist. 

"The weather continues cold & disagreeable. I met 
old Col. Forrest* yesterday who spoke of its breaking up 

* Colonel Thomas Forrest, Representative in Congress 
from Pennsylvania. He had served with credit in the 

i33 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

on the 23rd with as much confidence as he would of any 
certain event — he has entire faith in the goose bone, and 
said long ago that the weather wd. be very severe from the 
5th of this month to the 23rd. Thus far exactly soi^' I 
find I did the President's learning or rather his hbrary in- 
justice : he told me this morning that he has here and at 
Albemarle together an excellent one of three thousand 
volumes. Still I take him to have never been a reading 
man. 

"I asked Judge Duval to-day what they were doing 
in Maryland about a President. He said doing nothing, 
that it is quite too soon that Genl. Smith, Gov. Lloyd, 
Gov. Wright and Genl. Read had declared their prefer- 
ence for Crawford, Chancellor Johnson his for Adams, 
and Dr. Kent his for Calhoun : but that the people 
generally had not turned their attention to the subject 
at all. 

" Gov. King of Maine, one of the commissioners under 
the Spanish treaty, lately arrived here who is a thorough 
going Crawfordite, reports, I hear, that nearly all the 
leading democrats of New England are for him, that the 
late movements in Maine & Massachusetts were mostly 
federal. The old democratic papers in Connecticut have 
come out against Adams & for Crawford, and Gov. King 
has been dealing in transitu with his nephews at New 
York where the American which they are concerned in, 
has indicated latterly predilections for Adams, & supposes 
that they will change their tone. Mr. Brown told me this 
morning that Louisiana will nominate Clay which will 
induce his nomination by all the South & West. Geo. 



Revolution, was a Quaker, and apparently an eccentric 
character. — W. M. M. 

134 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Dallas says that Crawford is hors de combat & that Cal- 
houn's prospects brighten daily. Wm. King told me 
yesterday that he and his colleague Kelly from Alabama 
were elected in direct opposition to Crawford, that being 
the turning point. He told me also that he had a letter 
from N. Carolina stating that Crawford is losing ground 
there and that he would be beat notwithstanding all 
Macon's exertions in his behalf. Gov. Pickens of Ala- 
bama is decidedly hostile to him. You must recollect 
Pickens in Congress from N. Carolina when I was in. 
Gov. Pleasants of Virginia, Gov. Yates of N. York and 
Gov. Parris of Maine are supposed to be decidedly for 
Crawford, who is said moreover to have Mr. Jefferson at 
the head of his adherents. Mr. Monroe is of course 
neutral. But I believe there is no doubt that Mr. Calhoun 
has had more influence with him than any other member 
of his cabinet. I may add to the Crawfordite Governors 
our friend Edward Coles * who has lately appeared, I 
perceive, in the Newspapers in a letter not merely de- 
clining or renouncing, but absolutely repudiating the title 
of Excellency. 

" Thursday Even' g 20 Fcby. — The dinner to-day at 
Mr. Thompson's surprised me, I confess, more than any- 
thing of that sort, of which as I have already said there 
are so many, in Washington. Of the President's display 
I think I have expressed my dislike to you several years 
ago : and now it seems to be menaced with degeneracy. 
Of Mr. Adams's half french dinners, and of Mr. Craw- 
ford's whole french dinners I can form a reconciling notion 
because the plateaux and the plate & so forth are the 
natural fruits of former outfits & European acquirements. 

* Then Governor of Illinois. — W. M. M. 
135 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

But we had a very elegant entertainment to-day, with a 
showy plateau, some sprinkling at least of plate, some 
varieties of wines, and altogether a costly and handsome 
parade dinner for twenty or thirty persons, most of them 
in full dress too, from a plain, rather puritanical & poor 
family, who, I dare swear, till transplanted from Albany 
to the seat of government, never saw or dreamt of such 
things. Such are the influences of the capital, and all this 
achieved on six thousand dollars a year, with no outfit or 
contingencies, and in jeopardy every session moreover of 
reduction to five thousand may be four may be less a year. 
I ought to add that I do not marvel at it in any spirit of 
censure or detraction. They are very amiable, respectable 
& estimable people. But, as I am told, with no other 
means than the salary aforementioned, and all my wonder 
is like Peter Pindar's at the apple in the dumpling how the 
devil it comes about : and I refer it entirely to capital in- 
fluence. For instance, by way of Episode — or rather to 
turn a moment from Mr. Thompson's Episode to the social 
Epic of Washington — and to take the time present as 
instar omnium, as it is, as far as some six weeks go — there 
was a ball at Mrs. Brown's on Monday night, besides her 
overture on Sunday Evening, a ball at Mr. Adams' on 
Tuesday, the Drawing Room Wednesday, Col. Hender- 
son's ball at the Navy Yard to-night, Mr. Crawford's ball 
to-morrow night, the birth night ball on Saturday night, 
Mr. Wirt's ball on Monday, Mr. Adams' ball again, (& 
always during the session) on Tuesday, Mr. Thompson's 
ball on Wednesday, Mr. Chauncey's ball on Thursday, 
Mr. Canning's ball on friday — and further, as I go home 
to-morrow, my ken does not extend. All this while Messrs. 
Mcllvaine and his fellow clergymen are denouncing 
dancing as a sin & anathematising all who perpetrate 

136 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

it. Even poor General Brown,* I see, is at the head of 
the Managers for Saturday night — Poor fellow — not quite 
a driveller & a shew, but sadly changed from the stout, 
ablebodied, strenuous dux you left him — he is now a pale- 
faced cripple, the consequence of a paralytic stroke of 
which he thinks the seeds were sown in his lake cam- 
paigns/ -To return to the Secretary of the Navy, the hon- ^ 
orable Mr. Radamanthus, as I have heard him called, for 
there remains a good deal of the inflexible chief justice 
about him personally notwithstanding the general meta- 
morphosis of his household & habits (as I presume, for I 
don't know it as a fact) by transplantation to this hotbed 
of hospitality. We had the chief Justice of the U. S. on 
one seat of honor and the Mexican minister or Secretary 
of Legation, I did not ascertain which, on another. Judges 
Johnson & Story, fie on them for dining out so continually, 
tho' how can they help it under this raging star, Commo- 
dore Bainbridge, Captains Read & Finch of the Navy & a 
Lieutenant I don't know. Captain Ridgely of the Navy Sc 
his wife Miss Livingston, who was born when I was in 
Paris & is now not only a matron but taller than I am, 
which proves to me by memento that I am little and at 
least growing old, her sister Maria whom you remember 
here the winter of '14-' 15, with her husband the hand- 
some John Tillotson. By the way how inconsiderable 
mere good education good appearance good manners good 
circumstances and good conduct are in this ambitious 
country. I wd. rather one of my sons should be an emi- 
nent taylor or a distinguished innkeeper. There's Kelly 
of the Senate of the U. S. who was one of the first strange 



* General Jacob Brown, of Pennsylvania, the distin- 
guished general of the war of 1812. — W. IvL M. 

137 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

sights I saw when I took my seat in 1813. He contested 
the place of Harris of Tennessee, and made us an excel- 
lent speech at the bar of the house, lluent, selfpossessed, 
able and powerful, in a sort of shag coat, with a red some- 
thing by way of handkerchief or cravat on his neck, and 
all the rest of his equipment of similar character, with a 
pair of saddlebags on his arm from which he drew forth 
his notes & vouchers. To resume once more, we had 
Harry Waddell of whose name Judge Johnson made a bad 
use very often by placing the final / before the intermedi- 
ate e, a young Mexican, educated in England, speaking 
English very well, and looking like the rest of us, while 
his principal looked exactly as if his name was Iturbide — 
and many more of both sexes whom I need not enumerate 
or denominate, at Mr. Thompson's dinner. Adieu — here 
ends my Diary." 

Mr. IngersoU's determination in 18 15 to remain 
at the bar for some fifteen years was probably 
based upon a very definite plan of being able in 
his later years to have a little otiiun cum dignitate 
and then to choose such interest as he preferred to 
occupy him. And, indeed, at about the same time 
he strongly advised that a younger friend who was 
anxious to go to Europe on a mission should not 
do so, for " the alternatives were a i^"^ years of 
rather empty enjoyment at this end of life with a 
great many of penance, privation, and the grind- 
stone at the other, or a few years' tugging now, 
with comfort, consequence, and recreation, if he 
wishes, afterwards." 

138 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

His industry all through his Hfe was very great. 
In October, 1814, he wrote from Washington, — 

^^ "I have taken sanctuary in study, and have almost de- 
voured already as many volumes as I could lay my hands 
on of a broken set of Robinson's Reports and Hall's Law 
Journal, which, in direct contradiction to Judge Brecken- 
ridge's advice in his Miscellanies, I am reading 'flush 
through' for want of something better." 

At about the same time he read Blackstone 
through carefully, and in preparing for his speech 
on the Loan bill he had, on the advice of Mr. 
Duponceau, read an anonymous book published 
at Amsterdam in 1780, " La Liberte de la Naviga- 
tion et du Commerce des Nations neutres pendant 
la Guerre, consideree selon le Droit des Gens uni- 
versel, celui de I'Europe et les Traites." Of this 
he sent a complete translation^^ to Mr. Madison in 
July, 1 8 14, as he did also of a book, " Des Progres 
de la Puissance Russe," which had been loaned 
him by M. Serrurier, and which touched in part 
upon the same subject. At about the same time 
he was reading Rulhiere's " Poland," " Prince P:u- 
gene's Memoirs," and Porter's " Narrative of the 
Campaign in Russia in 181 2," of which latter he 
noted that " it transcends Munchausen." At the 
same time that he was consuming all these works 
he was attending closely to Congressional duties. 
At a much later period he wrote as follows of the 
origin of his " Law of Foreign Missions :" 

139 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

"Several years ago, by way of evening employment in 
the country, I translated Bynkershoek's twenty-four books 
de Foro Legatorum, assisted by Barbeyrac's paraphrase, 
in turning very unclassical and difficult modern Latin into 
English. Finding my work when done but an imperfect 
view of the subject, and becoming pleased with it, I con- 
sulted Wicquefort, Bielfeld, Vattel, Grotius, Merlin, Mar- 
ten, and whatever other writers upon it I could lay my 
hands on," 

All his life through he was a great reader and 
rarely without books : on one occasion, on a trip 
to Harrisburg, he wrote that Tacitus and Horace 
were his principal companions, and on another 
occasion that he was reading Bulwer's latest novel 
and " hungering for the Pickwick papers." 
During at least some of his earlier years he was 
in the habit of noting in a commonplace-book 
historical and other facts of interest and quotations 
of a striking character, some of which are to be 
found used very aptly in his Congressional life 
years afterwards. 

Soon also he had another line of work in being 
called upon to make addresses and orations. On 
October i8, 1823, he delivered the annual oration 
before the American Philosophical Society on the 
" Influence of America on the Mind," and in Oc- 
tober of the next year he read before the same 
society, at the meeting attended by General La 

Fayette, a " Communication on the Improvement 

140 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of Government." The first named was reprinted 
in London by one R. Flower, and a copy of the 
reprint sent the author, and it was also very favor- 
ably reviewed by Count Lanjuinais in the Revue 
Encyclopediquc ,\.o say nothing of notices in America. 
And a later effort of his, an address on tlie Fourth 
of July, 1832, delivered before the Philadelphia 
Society for celebrating the Anniversary of our 
Independence without Distinction of Party, also 
attracted attention abroad, and was quoted by 
Bulwer in his novel "Rienzi."^ The address on 
the " Influence of America on the Mind," as well 
as all others of the author where the subject had 
any proper place, was full of the great lesson which 
he was one of the very first to endeavor to teach 
his countrymen, of American pride and self-re- 
spect. There was no undue laudation, nor any 
touch of the spread-eagle, but a full appreciation of 
those national tendencies and capacities which his 
countrymen were generally so slow to defend and 
which the foreign world almost absolutely failed 
to see. The address before La Fayette touched in 
part upon the same subject, and, delivered as it was 
upon an inspiring occasion, was full of the feeling 
which its circumstances caused. In describing the 
delight of the Americans in receiving La Fayette, 
he said, — 

" No spectacle is either physically or morally comparable 
in magnificence to that of a rejoicing nation. No govern- 

141 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

mcnt can rouse a people like their own awakening. No 
treasury can afford the means, no ordinance can produce 
the effects of the gratuitous ostentation of an unanimous 
people. America does not forget the romantic forth- 
coming of the most generous consistent and heroic of 
the knights of the old world to the rescue of the new. 
She has always dwelt delighted on the constancy of the 
nobleman who could renounce titles and wealth, for more 
historical and philanthropic honors ; the commander re- 
nouncing power, who never shed a drop of blood for con- 
cjuest or vain glory. She has often trembled, but never 
blushed, for her oriental champion, when tried by the 
alternate caresses and rage of the most terrific mobs, and 
imposing monarchs. She knows that his hospitable man- 
sion was the shrine at which her citizens in P' ranee conse- 
crated their faith in independence. 



" Thither did all her valiant youth resort, 
And from his memory inflame their breasts 
To matchless valour, and adventures high. 



" Invited to revisit the scenes of his first eminence, the 
very idolatry of the welcome abounds with redeeming 
characteristics of self government. . . . The sons of sires 
whom he led to battle in calamitous resistance to a trifling 
tax are ready to lavish their last cent to make him wel- 
come. An industrious people, who earn their daily bread 
by labour, suspend all occupation but rejoicing with him. 
His voluntary escort consists of larger bodies of well 
equipped troops than could be raised throughout the revo- 
lution. Hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts, of all sexes, 
ages and conditions, are daily and nightly thronged to- 
gether in his train, without disorder, confusion, or crime. 

142 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Learned and pious societies, the female sex, all ages, the 
church, the professions, the various trades, the swarms of 
innumerable schools, city corporations, the magistrates of 
four and twenty sovereign states, and of the adult empire 
of their Union — all business laid aside — the courts of 
justice shut — party, and avarice, and every other passion 
hushed — from every private dwelling and public edifice, 
pour out to swell the perfectly placid and regulated cur- 
rent that bears upon its bosom — Not a chieftain reeking 
from reckless victory, sparkling with the trophies of ruffian 
■war, drenched with tears of blood, incensed by vulgar 
adulation — No : But a simple individual, without authority, 
power, patronage, or recent exploit, venerable with age, 
mellowed by misfortunes — who has nothing but his blessing 
to give in return, whose merits are remote recollections, 
whose magic is disinterestedness, — proved by a long life of 
temperate consistency, to be worthy of this homage in the 
commemoration of Independence. The man of whom no 
instance is known of selfishness or dangerous abuse — 
whose sword itself was the gift of the founder of the temple 
of concord — with such a man, as the representative of 
their persecuted but triumphant cause, a sedate and think- 
ing people give vent to their enthusiasm. They raise him 
before the world as its image, and bear him through illu- 
minated cities and widely cultivated regions, all redolent 
with festivity and every device of hospitality and enter- 
tainment, where, when their independence was declared, 
there was little else than wilderness and war." 



On October 24, 1825, he delivered the address 
before the Society for the Commemoration of the 
Landing of WiUiam Penn. On this occasion the 

143 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

meeting was held at the University, and the Presi- 
dent of the United States was present. And on July 
4, 1832, he delivered the already mentioned oration 
before the Philadelphia Association for celebrating 
the Fourth of July without Distinction of Party, in 
which, after enlarging on our advantages, he went 
at some length into the evils of our public press, 
and hinted at its venality, factiousness, and ten- 
dency to pander to the powerful, ending with some 
very strong reflections against the disunion views 
then prevalent in the South. 

But what seems to me in some respects his most 
remarkable oration, and a striking instance of his 
power of description, is a lecture 3° delivered in 
1839 at the Musical Fund Hall before the Athe- 
nian Institute, This was a society of young men 
for self-improvement, and the subject of his lecture 
was "Europe long ago." I have seen one per- 
son who heard this address and stiU has vividly 
fixed in his mind some portions of it. He says a 
great deal of it was spoken off-hand and with very 
slight notes. Mr. IngersoU began by saying that 
his remarks would be desultory, familiar, and un- 
pretending, and then gave a remarkably vivid 
picture of some sights and events which had im- 
pressed him in England and in various Continental 
countries. He spoke as follows of the remarkable 
scenes he saw in Paris, and ended — possibly to 
prevent any appearance of undue admiration of 

144 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

French methods — by describing his shock at an 
arrest he witnessed there : 



"To describe France is to represent Paris, and to do 
that in his time is to delineate Bonaparte. France, said 
Chateaubriand, is a soldier, not a Napoleon of peace, as 
the certainly very remarkable King of the French was 
called by Talleyrand ; but the little corporal of the violet 
flower and three-colored cockade, at whose name every 
crowned head trembled for twenty years of royal panic, 
while every veteran's heart leaped for joy, and every con- 
script, even though lamenting home, felt that Bonaparte 
would lead him to perform the prodigies and share the 
glories of the great nation. To sec him with his little 
cocked hat, gray surtout, and plain-hiltcd sword, on a 
beautiful Persian or Spanish horse, full of fire and move- 
ment, but perfectly broke and gentle, like his master 
collected and delighting in tumult and commotion, richly 
though heavily caparisoned, as striking as David's picture 
of him crossing the Alps ; a small, pallid, almost beardless 
midshipman-looking young man, with a languid Italian 
countenance, light restless eyes, full shoulders, finely 
turned limbs, very small hands and feet, handsome but 
not commanding appearance, a bad though bold rider, (as 
if he had never been taught that gentlemanly accomplish- 
ment — the elegant Charles the Tenth was probably a much 
more graceful horseman, and rode a review better,) en- 
vironed by cohorts of gorgeous officers as resplendent as 
he was plain, hardly one of them thirty years old, yet all 
veterans and many wounded ; Beauharnois, a well-favored 
graceful youth, at the head of his huzzars, and Murat in 
the flower of fantastic manhood, king by right of dashing 
10 145 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

deeds and dress, before he was enthroned of modern 
chivalry, exquisite coxcomb in equipments, glittering with 
lace, feathers, gold, and military- finery, profusely bearded 
before that mode became vulgar, perched on the most 
extraordinary charger that equestrian luxury could procure, 
his scarlet mane flowing in long glossy ringlets over broad 
parti-colored shoulders, his forelock parted in thick curls 
about odd eyes sparkling with fire, an animal altogether 
of most curious figure and action, as unlike the quiet sim- 
plicity of an English blood horse as Murat to a plain- 
dressed English gentleman ; — together with all the rest 
of the indescribable particulars of the grand monthly 
parade in front of the Tuilcries and Louvre, palaces of the 
Bourbons, close by the ruins caused by the infernal ma- 
chine ; — was a memorable scene to fascinate young fancies 
with vivid and overwhelming recollections. There was an 
exultation about Bonaparte's military spectacles, at that 
day, when the campaigns of Italy, of Egypt and of Marengo 
were casting forward the shadows of the coming events of 
Austerlitz, Moscow, and Waterloo — a revolutionary rush 
of thought which flashed over the senses beyond the power 
of adequate description. When he reined up his horse to 
call a private from the ranks of a distinguished regiment, 
and chat with him before the army, the metropolis of 
Europe and of the world, the public communion of such 
comrades was an ecstasy that thrilled through France. 
Then seated with the reins loose on the horse's neck in 
front of the palace, in the utmost abandon of position, 
while the troops, with their exciting music, and the still 
greater stimulation of their tattered colors, filed before 
him, his amiable face beaming with a popular smile which 
seemed to grant every petition, as, holding by his stirrup, 
women, children and old men handed their memorials, 

146 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

which he passed to aids-de-camp, — it was the culmination 
of the svm of martial glory. . . . 

" Returning from France to England, I felt that blessed 
assurance of personal safety which no American can appre- 
ciate till he puts himself into countries of police. One day 
in Paris, at the restaurateur's where I usually dined, I saw 
an arrest, whether for crime or debt I never learned. 
Several of us Americans were together. A party of French 
gentlemen were playing billiards in the same room. It 
was evening. Sixteen gens d' amies suddenly and silently 
filed in, and arrested one of the Frenchmen. Not a word 
was uttered ; no authority was shown but the uniform of 
the soldiers. No warrant, no cause assigned, no question 
asked, but the man in dread silence was marched away, 
under custody of his guards. I felt with a shudder that no 
Habeas Corpus act, no public sympathy, not even a police 
report, could come to his relief, and I fancied his fate 
mine. The necessity of always carrying and frequently 
renewing a passport, the alleged danger of any political 
conversation, the liability of even letters to betrayal, the 
probably exaggerated terrors of strict surveillance, tainted 
the enjoyments of Paris ; and I breathed in England that 
air of freedom which to American respiration is incon- 
ceivably refreshing, without which Europe with all its 
magnificence is splendid misery. Notwithstanding, too, 
the decided preference contracted for the French kitchen, 
I enjoyed the first slice of the cold roast beef of old Eng- 
land, on which I lunched at Canterbury, on the way from 
Dover to London, with the aboriginal relish of first love." 



147 



CHAPTER V. 

Era of Good Feeling — Andrew Jackson — Mr. Ingersoll 
defends Florida Campaign — State Assembly — In Canal 
Convention fav-ors Railroads — General Convention of 
Manufacturers — The Tariff of 1828 — Mr. Ingersoll' s 
Views on the Tariff and Commerce — New York Con- 
vention of Friends of Domestic Industry — Support of 
Jackson — Nominated for United States Senate — Charges 
against of Improper Conduct as District Attorney — 
Bank of United States — Mr. Ingersoll among its Sup- 
porters — Pennsylvania Resolutions in favor of — Plan to 
settle Bank Question — Interviews with Cabinet Officers — 
Correspondence with Mr. Biddle — Details of Jackson's 
Plan for a Bank — Veto — Letter to Sentinel in Support 
of Jackson — Bank's Appeal to Coercion for Recharter — 
Mr. Ingersoll opposes the Bank — Bitter Party Feeling 
and Proscription. 

During the years which followed the peace of 
181 5 the current of political affairs was for a lon<^ 
while quiescent. The recuperative measures which 
had been made necessary by the war once passed, 
there was far less than usual in the state of public 
affairs to cause political contests, and, moreover, 
the Democrats were in such complete control, and 
the Federalists so hopelessly disgraced, that there 
was hardly any ground left for dispute except the 
merest questions of persons. And even these ques- 

148 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

tions arose only about the closing period of Mr. 
Monroe's term; but then warm personal politics 
became the order of the day, and in a few years 
questions came up which again divided the people 
upon lines not dissimilar from those which had 
ruled during the end of the last and early years 
of this century. In these later events Andrew 
Jackson was a chief actor, and his remarkable per- 
sonality has left an impress upon our country such 
as only very few have made. Undoubtedly his 
power and wonderful popularity were due pri- 
marily to his personal qualities, but it is clear that 
he had also a vast advantage from his great vic- 
tory at New Orleans. Every American felt a debt 
of personal gratitude to him ; he had restored to 
every man in the country his national pride and 
self-confidence, which had theretofore suffered so 
many deep humiliations, and Mr. Clay well 
said,3i upon hearing of the victory, ^'Nozv I can 
go to England without mortification." The sense 
of personal gratitude to a successful general is 
with many people very deep, and is not to be ap- 
preciated except by those who have felt it. I have 
heard the deepest gratitude expressed and seen 
the most persistent adherence — with a touch of 
almost religious devotion — to a leading general of 
the civil war, from the lips of one who was en- 
titled to hiGfh consideration but had received but 
scant favors from the general in question, 

149 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

And this same feeling existed towards Andrew 
Jackson. Thus, Mr. Ingersoll, who had favored 
Crawford for President in 1824 as the regular 
candidate, did not vote at all in the Presidential 
election of 1828, because he felt that he could not 
vote against Adams, who had continued him as 
District Attorney, and could not possibly " vote 
aeainst the hero of New Orleans." And earlier 
yet, in 18 18, at the time when Jackson invaded 
Florida and executed the Englishmen Ambrister 
and Arbuthnot at St. Mark's, on the general 
ground of their having aided and incited the In- 
dians to war against the United States, he had 
written a letter to the Democratic Press defending 
the general's course. The instance was one of 
those events of an intriguing and ruffian border- 
land, where the rules of international law cannot 
be strictly applied ; and the American government, 
though it disavowed Jackson's action, in reality 
defended him, while the British ministry were glad 
to see the excitement in their own country quiet 
down, as they largely accepted our version of the 
affair, and tacitly assumed that Ambrister and 
Arbuthnot had expatriated themselves, Mr. In- 
gersoll sent a copy of his letter to Mr. Monroe, 
and received the following reply : 

" Washington July 24, 1818. 
"Dear Sir, — I have had the pleasure to receive your 
letter of the 19th, with the number of the Demo : Press 

ISC' 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

which contains your remarks on the late occurrences in 
Florida, which I have read, with much interest & satisfac- 
tion. You have suggested and stated many ideas, on the 
subject, which are perfectly sound and correct, and care- 
fully avoided any compromitment, on ground not sustain- 
able, or which would bring you into conflict, with the 
course, pursued by the government. 

"The fact is, that the General acted without authority, 
& even against his orders, in the material circumstance of 
taking Pensacola. The conduct however of the Spanish 
officers, is thought to have justified him. They stimulated 
the Indians to the war, furnished them with munitions of 
war to carry it on, embarrassed his operations by refusing 
a passage to his provisions, furnished an asylum, as you 
state, to a principal chief &c. The facts on which he 
rests his justification, were not known to the govt, when 
his orders were given, many of them indeed occurred 
afterwards ; tho I do not think, had they been known, or 
anticipated, that the Executive could have given an order 
to take the posts. Such an order would have been war, 
and that power belongs exclusively to Congress, in the 
first instance. To retain the posts, would be as objection- 
able on principle, as to take them, and might lead to the 
same consequences. It is therefore thought proper to 
restore them. But as the Spanish officers are the aggres- 
sors, and everything that has been done is imputable to 
them, the minister of Spain is informed, that the evidence 
proving their misconduct, will be embodied, as the ground 
of an application to his govt, for their punishment. He is 
further informed that it is expected, that his govt, will 
place a force in Florida, sufficient to fulfill the stipulation 
of the treaty of 1795, whereby it is bound, to restrain the 
Indians from committing hostilities against the U. States. 

151 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

"There were two courses of proceeding, in direct op- 
position to each other, & differing, each, from that which 
has been adopted. One was to hold the posts, & meet 
the consequences. This was objectionable for the reasons 
assigned above. The other, not only to state that no 
orders had been given for taking them but to bring to 
trial the officer who took them, for disobedience of orders. 
If his defense is good, as I think it is, there is no ground 
on which to try him, in regard to Spain. His trial, there- 
fore, would be a triumph to that power, over a general, 
who had, on his own responsibility, avenged the injuries 
of his country, and to which triumph his own govt, 
would be made instrumental. Such a measure would an- 
nounce to Spain, that, let her act as she might, Florida 
was in no danger ; we would never take it. It would con- 
firm her in the disposition not to cede it. By avoiding 
both extremes, we have endeavoured, to turn the incident, 
to the best account we could for our country, & to the 
credit of the General, without committing a breach of the 
constitution, or incurring the imputation of it, or furnishing 
to Spain just cause of war. Should war follow, the exec- 
utive will not be responsible for it. It will be the expe- 
dient of desperate councils, adopted as the last resource 
to save their colonies, in the hope of uniting Europe 
against us & them, on the calculation, that if the U. 
States, and Spain, engage in war, it will soon become 
general, & in favor of Spain. Should war not ensue, it 
seems probable, that the multiplied proofs which have 
been afforded, to the Spanish govt., of the impossibility 
of fulfilling its engagements to the U. States, in regard to 
Florida, will induce it, to cede the province. 

"I am glad to hear, that you have made so great a 
progress in the translation of Bynkershoek, a work which 

152 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

will I doubt not do you credit, and add much to the pro- 
fessional knowledge of all to whom the original is un- 
known. 

" with great respect & esteem I am 

" dear sir sincerely yours 
(Signed) "James Monroe." 



Thoufih Mr. IngrersoU did not return to Con- 
gress — as we have seen he had set before himself 
to do, soon after the end of his first term of ser- 
vice — in the year 1832, nor indeed until 1841, yet 
with the beginning of the fourth decade of the 
century, after he had toiled almost e.xclusively at 
the bar during the period which he had appointed 
for himself, he did take the most active part in 
politics generally, and he served a term in the 
State Assembly in 1830-31. But there are some 
still earlier proceedings of importance in which he 
took part. He was a member of the Canal or 
Improvement Convcntion,3^ which met at Harris- 
burg August 4, 1825, and he there introduced and 
advocated a resolution for trying the then un- 
known merits of railroads with locomotive engines, 
which had just been introduced into England. He 
was seconded in this effort by Professor Vcthake, 
but the scheme was strenuously opposed by some 
leading men, and was voted down by a large 
majority as both impracticable and likely to be 
disadvantageous to the canals. Mr. IngersoU had 
been much connected with Oliver Evans, and had 

153 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

heard his confident predictions of the uses of 
steam, and no doubt it was in this way that he had 
come to be so far in advance of the knowledge of 
his day upon the subject. 

In 1827 he was a member of the "General 
Convention of Agriculturists and Manufacturers 
and others friendly to the Encouragement and 
Support of the Domestic Industry of the United 
States." This body 33 was called, in pursuance of a 
resolution of May 14, 1827, of "The Pennsylvania 
Society for the Promotion of Manufactures and 
the Mechanic Arts." During the preceding winter 
a bill known as the " Woollen Bill" had passed the 
House, but been defeated in the Senate by the 
casting vote of the Vice-President ; and it appears 
to have been then decided to call a national con- 
vention of " the friends of domestic industries," as 
they styled themselves, with a view to making a 
more imposing demand for further protective 
legislation from the next Congress. 

It was in pursuance of this call that the general 
convention met at Harrisburg, July 30, 1827. In it 
all the New England and Middle States, and Ohio, 
Kentucky, and Virginia, were represented. Mr. 
IngersoU was chairman of the Committee to pre- 
pare a Memorial to Congress, and was very activ^e 
throughout. The Memorial asked that the duty 
on raw wool costing over eight cents per pound 
in a foreign country should be twenty cents per 

154 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

pound, to be increased gradually to fifty cents per 
pound; and on woollen goods they asked for forty 
per cent, ad valorem, to be increased gradually to 
fifty per cent. Upon the motion of Mr, Niles, it 
had been resolved that " the interest of the wool- 
growers and manufacturers (which are in a very 
depressed condition) shall be made the chief and 
leading object of the memorial to Congress ;" but, 
in addition to the woes of the wool men, several 
other infant industries succeeded in introducing 
their plaints. The convention sat only five days, 
and resolved that its expenses, which were esti- 
mated at about five hundred dollars, should be 
paid by an assessment of five dollars on each 
member, to be reimbursed by a collection in their 
respective States. Shortly after this the German 
Professor List, who had been expelled from Bava- 
ria for his liberal sentiments and had come to this 
country, addressed to Mr. Ingersoll a series of 
letters advocating the principles of protection. 
These letters were thought very able, and were 
published in the National Gazette. 

The memorial of this convention was presented 
to Congress at its next session, and that Congress 
passed the tariff act of 1828. This was bitterly 
opposed by the Southern members and by the 
South generally, who called it the " tariff of abom- 
inations." Schouler writes that it imposed an 
average duty of from forty to forty-five per cent. 

155 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

on woollen goods. It was not a measure either 
of the administration or of its opponents, and was 
pressed through a very divided and disorganized 
Congress on the eve of the Presidential election. 

Mr. IngersoU was thus and always remained 
a protectionist, and he is said to have been in 
favor of each of the tariff acts passed from 1816 
down to 1830. Nor must we deceive ourselves 
by thinking that the protection he and others 
then advocated was very slight; we have seen 
that it was not, though, of course, the rates are 
now in general even higher, and the field covered 
is immeasurably wider than it then was. But 
though he was thus a protectionist, — and probably 
no man could have had a place in politics in Penn- 
sylvania unless he believed in the system, — yet his 
views of commerce were in general broad and 
liberal. He seems to have read the writers on 
political economy, and thought no one could be 
insensible to the " persuasive doctrines of that 
freedom of trade" which they inculcate; but he did 
not think they could be safely applied in our new 
country in the face of so many rivals grown to 
great commercial power by their exclusive sys- 
tems. 

Some of the pet theories of the protectionists 
received but scant favor from him ; and on one 
occasion, being asked in debate whether he sup- 
posed we could export iron to France until the 

156 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

wages of our labor were reduced to the standard 
of France, he replied that that theory was " one 
of the greatest humbugs of the world." He was 
always in favor of extending our commerce, and 
in 1839 wrote to a Pottsville paper proposing the 
export of " stone coal" to Europe. And when in 
Congress in 1842, he moved to amend the Civil 
Appropriation Bill by inserting an appropriation 
of five thousand dollars for a commercial agent in 
Europe, who should visit different countries and 
endeavor to secure a market for American goods 
by representations to merchants there, as well as 
by keeping his countrymen informed upon prices 
and other matters of importance. At the New 
York Protective Convention of 1831 he advocated 
free coarse cottons, — a measure by no means 
agreeable to the manufacturers, — and in his ad- 
dress on October 22, 1835, before the American 
Institute in New York upon the occasion of its 
Eighth Annual Fair, he presented in an admirable 
way the advantages of a wide interchange among 
nations, and showed at length the great influence 
resulting upon national power and development. 

More than once during his career he urged 
treaties with foreign countries for the exchange 
of commodities on a basis of equality, thus coming 
very near to what has been called reciprocity in 
our time; and more especially did he favor such 
treaties with France. When in the State Legisla- 

157 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

ture, in 183 1, he introduced resolutions urging the 
Federal government to carry into effect the theory 
of Franklin's treaty of Versailles for national 
equality and commercial reciprocity with that 
country. This was, indeed, always one of his 
theories ; and he looked for great benefit from a 
free interchange of goods with France. Not only 
would it in his view increase trade, but it would 
also tend to liberate us from too great dependence 
upon British manufactures. Again, in 1848, soon 
after the French Revolution of that year, he pro- 
posed in Congress to instruct the Ways and 
Means to inquire into the advisability of reducing 
the rates of duty on French importations from 
thirty to fifteen per cent. He explained that his 
purpose was that the French would then buy our 
products of us, and his plan would give them the 
means of paying for them. The resolution was, 
however, laid on the table by 99 votes to 85. 

The opposition in the South to the act of 1828 
grew more and more strong, and in the autumn 
of 1 83 1 a largely attended free-trade convention 
was held in Philadelphia and issued an address to 
the people of the United States. On October 26, 
1 83 1, shortly after the adjournment of this body, 
a convention of " Friends of Domestic Industry" 
assembled in New York. This body was also 
largely attended, consisting of five hundred and 
nine members, who represented all the New Eng- 

15S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

land and Middle States and Maryland, Virginia, 
Ohio, and the District of Columbia. Wool was 
again veiy prominent, but iron and steel, sugar, 
copper, cotton and cotton goods, chemicals, silk, 
hemp, glass, porcelain, hats, and cabinet furniture 
all had committees in their interests, and doubtless 
the addition of their voices made a very welcome 
increase of the strength of the protectionists. The 
convention sat for six days and issued an address 
to the people of the United States. Mr. Ingersoll 
was chairman of the committee to prepare this 
address ; and a memorandum in his handwriting 
upon his copy informs us that the address down 
to the last paragraph on page 21 was written by 
Warren Button, of Boston, with some contribu- 
tions by John P. Kennedy, of Baltimore, while the 
remaining part was written by himself, with contri- 
butions by Mr. Kennedy. An entry in his diary of 
the time records that the constitutional part of the 
argument of the address was " revised, I have 
reason to believe, by Mr. Webster and Judge 
Jackson," and that " that part which treats of po- 
litical economy in the abstract is by Mr. Button, 
revised if not prepared by some of the ablest men 
of Cambridge University." In reading the address 
one is struck by the great similarity of man}' of 
the arguments used to those of to-day; indeed, 
the address might in general serve now as well as 
sixty years ago. But some portions are different 

159 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

from the ordinary line of argument, and trace 
quite closely the history of the tariff's growth. 

Mr. Ingersoll was removed by President Jackson 
from the office of United States District Attorney 
in April, 1829, and George M. Dallas appointed 
in his place ; but despite this and his disapproval 
of the very general removals from office and of 
certain other steps of the administration, he sup- 
ported Jackson from the start, and took early op- 
portunity to announce his intention to do so. He 
was greatly pleased with the famous toast which 
the President gave so unexpectedly to the " Fed- 
eral Union" at the nullificrs' dinner on Jefferson's 
birthday, and at a dinner to Mr. Poinsett in Phila- 
delphia in the spring of 1830 he gave as a toast, 
" A solid Union, firmly hooped together under 
one Federal head, the only rock of safety for the 
States." In his speech introducing this toast he 
arjjued against the claim of the nullifiers that Mr. 
Jefferson had maintained their views, and in speak- 
ing of the famous dinner said, — 

" The Pennsylvania delegation are said to have absented 
themselves from the assembly met to discover when Jeffer- 
son' s birth day was cast by the necromancy of the modern 
horoscope : Like the absence of certain busts expected at 
the funeral of Germanicus, they would not have been in 
keeping at the obsequies of the constitution. The sober, 
solid centre ! It stands fast, not unmoved, but unshaken 
by the alternate rocking of the battlements east and south. 

160 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

But the President was there, novus hospes. Yes, he was 
there in his capacity as commander in chief. When he 
assumed the command at New Orleans, the country tnust 
and shall be saved, was his orders of the day ; which he 
enforced by surprising and defeating the enemy, not ex- 
pecting him, as soon as they landed. At the seat of Gov- 
ernment he proved himself every inch a President at a 
dinner as much as at a battle. By the master stroke of a 
mere toast, he nullified the nullifuation he was invited to 
magnify. While thus he defends the country and the 
constitution, he is worthy and welcome, to govern the one 
and administer the other. He may take what freedoms 
he will with the offices of the Union, whilst he preserves 
the Union inviolate, and the people and the patriotic, 
those who neither court his favors nor fear his frowns, will 
support him. On the next anniversary of the nation's 
birth day, the only political holiday kept by Mr. Jefferson, 
may the President' s toast be toasted at every festival, from 
Little Rock to Passamaquoddy ! — The Constitution 7nust 
be maintained.' ' 

While in the Legislature in 1830, Mr. IngersoU 
was nominated in both Houses for United States 
Senator for the place about to be vacated by 
William Marks. Eleven candidates were nomi- 
nated in the House and eight in the Senate, and 
his name headed each list; but on the twenty-first 
ballot William Wilkins was elected, who had at 
first had almost no support. Mr. Ingersoll's high- 
est vote was eleven on the fourth ballot. During 
the canvass he wrote a letter in reply to some 
friends in the Legislature, in which he stated that 
II 161 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

he was a supporter of General Jackson, but had 
remained entirely neutral during the campaign of 
1828, because Mr. Adams had reappointed him 
District Attorney in 1826 under "very peculiar 
circumstances," and he had felt that he could not 
honorably vote against him. The use of this ex- 
pression requires some explanation, and has refer- 
ence to a long-lived but now forgotten political 
slander. 

It appears that in 1822, when renominated by 
Mr. Monroe, some charges of improper conduct 
had been brought against him, and an effort made 
to prevent confirmation by the Senate. These were 
met before a committee of that body, before which 
the accusers failed to appear upon notice, and the 
nomination was soon confirmed. I presume that 
the same charges were brought up again in 1826, 
and that Mr. Ingersoll's reappointment despite 
them by a President whom he did not support 
explains his use of the above term. The charges 
remained on the carpet for many years, however, 
and in some publication of the United States 
Treasury language was used which political oppo- 
nents turned into a formal charge that he was a 
public defaulter. It is fortunately not necessary 
to go into these charges at length. One of them, 
which partisanship has kept from entire oblivion 
even to the present day, grew out of what were 

known as the " tea cases." A tea merchant was 

162 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

found to have been engaged for several years in 
fraudulently removing tea so as to avoid the duties, 
and he had in this way at many different times 
removed some seventy thousand parcels. When 
the indictments came to be drawn the question 
arose how many indictments there should be, and 
this was a matter of personal interest to the Dis- 
trict Attorney and other officers, as they were paid 
in part by fees upon each case. I presume that 
Mr. Ingersoll's accusers took the layman's view 
that a single indictment would suffice, but a lawyer 
will hardly be of this opinion. The view taken by 
Mr. Ingersoll was that there should be one indict- 
ment for each separate act of removal, and there 
were thus over five hundred indictments for the 
removal of the seventy thousand parcels by over 
five hundred separate deliveries. Antony Laussat 
and Joseph A. Clay, who were at the time students 
in Mr. Ingersoll's office, testified that they had 
been engaged in drawing the indictments and had 
been constantly enjoined by him " to take care and 
not multiply the indictments, but compress as 
many cases of tea as possible in each one." 

The plan under which Mr. Ingersoll thus acted 
received later the approval of Judge Hopkinson, 
but there were other grounds of difference with 
the Treasury officials. Thus he claimed that he 
was entitled to fees for services rendered outside 
of the exact line of his duty as District Attorney, 

163 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and he held in his hands a sum of money which 
he had collected and kept invested to abide the 
final event, informing the Treasury of the fact of 
his doing so and of his reasons. The total claim 
of the .United States against him was over thirty- 
nine thousand dollars, a large part of which con- 
sisted of an absurd claim upon judgments which 
had been marked satisfied, but the money had never 
been received by the United States, — the truth 
being that they had been paid, not to Mr. Ingersoll 
but to the marshal, and the latter was a defaulter. 
Absurd as the charges of impropriety were, 
they gave him a vast deal of trouble. For a long 
time he pressed the Treasury officials in vain for 
a suit against him, so that the questions involved 
might be disposed of; but finally the matter was 
tried before Judge Hopkinson in the spring of 
1837, and after sixteen days' trial, involving a 
complete examination of the most complicated 
accounts covering a period of fourteen years, every 
charge of impropriety was completely disproved 
and almost every one of Mr. IngersoU's conten- 
tions was sustained. The only point of moment 
ruled against him was as to some of the claims for 
fees for extra legal services rendered to certain 
subordinate officers. And even as to these the 
trial judge recognized that the moral claim was 
perfect, but did not think the subordinate officer 
in question had the power to bind the govern- 

164 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

ment. The disallowance of these claims was ad- 
mitted to leave him owing not quite four thousand 
dollars (consisting of part of the sum he had kept 
invested to abide the event) to the United States, 
and there was accordingly a verdict against him 
for that sum, which was soon settled, and the 
whole matter thus in reality ended, though it long 
remained a basis of charge and has survived in 
one partisan mind even to this day. The jury 
which heard the case sent the following letter 34 to 
Mr. Ingersoll : 

" Philadelphia, April 6, 1837. 

"Sir, — During the recent judicial investigation of 
claims between the Treasury of the United States and 
yourself, involving the settlement of large sums of money, 
and which of necessity required an examination of your 
official conduct as attorney for the United States in this 
district for a period of fourteen years, the undersigned 
who were indiscriminately drawn from among your fellow 
citizens to decide on the validity of those claims, and 
having attentively weighed and examined those charges 
made against you, and sustained with so much zeal, 
talent, and persevering industry by the district attorney, 
and which were as promptly answered by yourself, and 
with conscious integrity rebutted and disproved in most 
cases, the jury have awarded a verdict leaving a balance 
in favor of the United States. 

" The number of years these accounts have remained 
unsettled, although every exertion was made on your part 
to obtain a settlement, may have produced an unfavorable 
impression in the minds of persons unacquainted with the 

I6S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

causes of delay, and perhaps already predisposed to cen- 
sure those whose talents may have placed them in elevated 
stations. 

"The undersigned, who in the late trial have seen the 
whole of your official conduct closely and critically exam- 
ined, do cheerfully offer to you, sir, the expression of an 
opinion that your conduct as district attorney was zealous 
and strictly just, and creditable not only to yourself, but 
to the bar of which you are a member. 

" With respect and esteem your fellow citizens, 

"J. Roach, Geo. W. Page, 

"Joseph Price, Lewis Ryan, 

" CORUS COMEGYS, JOHN ByERLY, 

"Patrick Hayes, Isaac Freeman, 

"Miles N. Carpenter, Hugh Dickson, 
"W. J. Smith, A. M. Howell. 

"To Charles J. Ingersoll, Esq." 

It has been seen that Mr. Ingersoll was in favor 
of the establishment of the Bank of the United 
States in 1816. He was also one of the supporters 
of Nicholas Biddle for its presidency to succeed 
Cheves in 1822, and he and Mr. Biddle were inti- 
mate personal friends for many years, and, indeed, 
despite wide differences in politics, and especially 
concerning the bank, their friendship was never 
broken. In 1841, when troubles had thickened 
about Mr. Biddle, Mr. Ingersoll wrote to offer his 
services in the suits brought against him by the 
Pennsylvania Bank of the United States ; and, 

though the offer was declined, on account of Mr. 

r66 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOTX 

IngersoU's engagements in Congress, the feelings 
which prompted it were evidently appreciated. 

Mr. IngersoU remained a supporter of the bank 
for a number of years during Jackson's term of 
office, and became its opponent only when its 
conduct had in his opinion rendered it impossible 
to do otherwise. The hints of opposition to the 
recharter of the bank contained in Jackson's first 
and succeeding messages found no response in 
him ; on the contrary, he criticised them unfavor- 
ably, as did at first the vast majority of the public 
men of the country. In December, 1829, he wrote 
John Forsyth expressing this view, and Mr. For- 
syth agreed with him, and expressed his regret 
that " the general had not omitted the strictures on 
the bank." Nor did he confine himself to private 
letters, but early in 183 1, with the knowledge and 
co-operation of Nicholas Biddle, he introduced 
resolutions into the State Legislature in favor of 
the bank. 

These were the well-known resolutions which 
were charged to have been passed through bribery. 
Mr. Biddle was greatly interested in them pend- 
ing their passage, and quoted to Mr. IngersoU 
an extract concerning the immense effect such 
resolutions would have from "a letter from Al- 
bany of a friend of mine who went there for the 
purpose of reconnoitring and counteracting the 
design of Mr. Van Buren to move the legislature 

167 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

against the Bank." It was evidently at one time 
in doubt whether the resokitions could be carried; 
and presumably this was the reason why Mr. In- 
gersoll introduced them reading in favor of "a" 
bank, having already arranged that certain mem- 
bers were to move to substitute "the" for "a." 
Presumably it was for this same reason that the 
resolution for the bank's recharter was coupled 
with others in favor of protection and of the Union 
and against the claims of the nullifiers. They 
were finally passed by decisive majorities, after 
having at one stage met with a serious repulse, 
and after having had a clause added in favor of 
distribution of the surplus revenue among the 
States, which Mr. Ingersoll voted against. 

Soon the New Hampshire Patriot charged — and 
the Washington Globe reprinted the charge — that 
the passage of the resolution for the bank had been 
obtained by a system of corrupt bribery. To this 
Mr. Ingersoll and other members of the Legisla- 
ture from Philadelphia and its vicinity hastened to 
publish an indignant denial. This was dated May 
1 8, 1 83 1 , and first appeared in the American Sentinel 
of Philadelphia, but was widely copied. It referred 
to the fact of the charge being published in " a 
leading Democratic paper, and republished in the 
paper which is understood by the people to be the 
official organ of the national administration," and 
pronounced it, " no matter by whom made, by whom 

168 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

repeated, or by whom coiinteiianccd, to be an un- 
founded and atrocious libel." But this by no 
means ended the matter, and charges and counter- 
charges were for some time rife among the dif- 
ferent elements of the Democrats. It is curious 
to observe how even those members of the party 
who were in favor of the bank strove hard to avoid 
an open clash with the immensely popular Presi- 
dent. Thus, the Sentinel on June ii asserted 
that the President cordially supported each of the 
resolutions of the Legislature, and warned those, 
" whoever they are, that would crush the present 
administration, and the Democratic party, in at 
least temporary overthrow, for the good of the 
succession, that the State of Pennsylvania is 
wedded to the Bank of the United States, to the 
Tariff, to the Judiciary, in a word, the as you are 
system." They thus strove to unite with them all 
the strength of the feeling in the State for the 
tariff and the wide-spread sentiment against the 
nullifiers' theories, and at the same time rang the 
changes upon the charge that the anti-bank move- 
ment was but a plan of New York to destroy the 
bank in Philadelphia and establish a new insti- 
tution in New York. The Legislature of New 
York had replied to the Pennsylvania resolutions 
by a series of resolutions opposed to the bank. 

This is not the place for a history of the memo- 
rable struggle with the bank, but still many of the 

169 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

details of that history bear so closely upon Mr. 
Ingersoll's life that they are essential here. Though 
many, if not most, of even our federal historians 
admit that on the whole the continuance of the 
bank was not desirable, yet they all maintain that 
Jackson, through some spleen, " made war" upon 
it. But, as Benton stoutly maintained, the bank 
had no vested right to be rechartered, and no 
attack was made upon it when the expediency of 
recharter was questioned. Nor is there any reason 
to suppose that Jackson was actuated by mere 
spleen or temper. It is far more likely that his 
mistrust was caused by a natural suspicion of it 
from its vastness and its stupendous power. His 
instinct taught him in advance what the facts later 
showed, that the enormous power it wielded could 
not be safely trusted to its secret conclave ; and 
when the facts w^ere once developed, his country- 
men supported him, even when he went further 
and did reply to its assaults by attacks, as in the 
removal of the deposits. In the history of the 
contest, the tariff, the rupture with Calhoun, and 
the discontent and nullifying movement of South 
Carolina were all closely bound up, and the Demo- 
cratic supporters of the bank did their utmost to 
couple Calhoun, nullification, and the opposition to 
the tariff with the opposition to recharter. Such 
was at least their effort in Pennsylvania. 

It is probably true that Jackson at first desired 

170 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

to postpone the contest until after his re-election ; 
and his message of 1831 omitted the strictures 
which the two earlier ones had contained. It was 
then a very moot question with the bank whether 
it should apply for a charter at once or wait. It 
had an envoy (General Cadwalader) at Washing- 
ton's upon this point in the end of 1831; but it 
was finally decided — largely through the influence 
of Clay — to apply at once. They thought to em- 
barrass Jackson by forcing on him the alternative 
to sign the bill for recharter or else to veto it 
shortly before the election ; but never did a bolder 
game more completely miscarry. 

During February and part of March, 1S32, Mr. 
IngersoU was in Washington, whither he had gone 
to attend to some cases in the United States 
Supreme Court, and was a very close watcher of 
the events then going on. He saw much of 
nearly all the actors in the scenes of the day, 
dining out and visiting constantly ; and he wrote 
many letters to Mr. Biddle,* from whicii material 

* Among the letters which have been in my hands are a 
few from Mr. Biddle to Mr. Ingcrsoll. In one of these, 
under date of February 21, 1 831, he writes, "In regard 
to Mr. Clay, he once owed the Bank in 1S21 or 1822 
about 22 thousand dollars. He paid it all principal and 
interest. When our western troubles began he was ap- 
pointed the counsel of the bank for Kentucky & Ohio 
receiving a salary for one or perhaps two years of $5000 

171 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of some historical interest can be gleaned. Upon 
his arriv'al he wrote at once that the administration 
was much provoked at the introduction of the 
question, and he thought its power would be 
thrown for delay. He had some other matter on 
hand which brought him close to Mr. Livingston, 
and he soon took advantage of this to find out 
how the administration felt upon the subject of 
the bank. On February 9 he had a long inter- 
view with him, and sugge*sted what was evidently 
a plan of Mr, Biddle's, — that the bank question 
should be taken out of the hands of Mr, McDuffie 
and be passed as a distinct administration measure, 
after certain alterations had been made in the 
charter to meet the views of the President, 

The plan was originally that this should be done 
by Mr. Dallas introducing such a bill in the Sen- 
ate ; later Mr. Wilkins was selected as the leader of 
the move. Mr. Livingston, who favored recharter, 
took the matter up most earnestly, spoke with the 
President, and privately sounded the cabinet. On 
February 21, Mr, Ingersoll was able to write that 
Mr. Livingston informed him that McLane, Cass, 
and Woodbury, as well as Livingston himself, 
were in favor of the movement. Of Barry nothing 



& afterwards of ^3000 a year. When he went to the 
Dept of State he settled his account and since then has 
been a stranger to the Bank." 

172 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOIX 

was said, while Taney alone of the cabinet was re- 
ported as against them ; but they had hopes of 
winning him over, as they had also of Lewis and 
Kendall, two important members of what has been 
called the " kitchen cabinet." Two days later, Mr. 
Livincrston asked whether Mr. Biddle would agree 
to " the President's views of the terms for a new 
charter." Mr. Ingersoll replied that he had no 
doubt of it, but was not authorized to speak posi- 
tively ; and he then made a written memorandum 
in Mr. Livingston's presence of what Mr. Living- 
ston said these terms* were. Mr. Biddle was 



* Mr. IngersoU's letter details these terms as follows : 

"I. Government to have no interest in the bank. 

" 2. President of U.S. empowered to appoint a Director 
at each bank so that government may be represented at 
each. 

"3. States authorized to tax the property both real .S: 
personal of the bank within the said States in like manner 
as the States may tax other property within them. 

"4. The bank to hold no Real Estate but such as it 
may be constrained to take in payment or security of its 
debts, and to be compellable by law to sell that within 
stated time. 

' ' The foregoing I understand from Mr. L. are the Presi- 
dent' s terms. 

" 5. A certain proportion of the stock or capital to be 
thrown open to new subscriptions, which may be done by 
pro rata reduction of the present capital, or by addition 
to it. 

173 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

willing to agree to most of these alterations, but 
he evidently objected to some. 

With McLane, also, Mr. Ingersoll had inter- 
views in the same interest, and found him hurt and 
provoked at the early precipitation of the question 
of recharter, in violation of his opinion and, as he 
thought, of an understanding with General Cad- 
walader. Mr. McLane denied positively, as had 
Mr. Livingston, that Jackson had ever said he 
would " put down the bank," but he also empha- 
sized the objection of the President to being 
•♦ forced." 

What appears to have defeated this plan, sup- 
posing it could otherwise have succeeded, was the 
pending resolution of Clayton for a committee 
of inquiry. This most of the supporters of the 
bank were afraid openly to oppose, and finally 
McDuffie unexpectedly agreed to its passage. 
The day preceding this, Mr. Livingston had as- 
sured Mr. Ingersoll that the President would 
without hesitation sign a bill, if one was sent to 



"This — 5 — is not the President's requirement : but Mr. 
L. seems to be very tenacious of it, always urging, that it 
will facilitate very much the recharter. 

"6. The Directors to nominate annually two or three 
persons of whom the President to appoint any one as 
President of the bank. 

"This — 6 — neither the President nor Mr. L. like. It is 
the suggestion of others — he said . . ." 

174 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

him in accordance with his opinions ; but had 
added that the adoption of the resolution would 
stop the plan, for, if Congress should order an 
inquiry, the President must await the issue of it. 
The President, he said, had had nothing to do 
with the introduction of the resolution. The first 
belief of the bank's supporters was that the in- 
quiry was intended to delay the matter indefinitely, 
and they blamed McDuffie in round terms for his 
action in consenting to the passage of the resolu- 
tion. Mr. IngersoU was told later by the Speaker 
that McDuffie had said he did it so that action on 
the tariff should precede that on the bank. Mr. 
Livingston still maintaining that the President 
would sign a proper bank bill (though he said he 
had " never heard him say so, but had good reason 
to rely on it"), the next idea of Mr, IngersoU was 
for the bank immediately to send a memorial to 
Congress asking for investigation, but strongly 
deprecating delay; and that through Mr. Wilkins 
or some one else bills should be introduced as ad- 
ministration measures (i) to compromise the tariff 
question (which Mr. Livingston said would " win 
Jackson's heart"), and (2) to recharter the bank 
with the proposed modifications. Mr. Biddle did 
not approve of requesting investigation, and the 
whole plan miscarried. Unfortunately the corre- 
spondence ends here, and Mr, IngersoU returned 
home soon after the middle of March. During his 

175 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

stay he had endeavored to advance the plans on 
foot by a series of letters to the American Sentinel 
under the name of " Tulpehocken" and " Tulpe- 
hocken of Yellow Breeches," and to the Enquirer 
of Philadelphia under the name of " Incognito." 
It is worthy of note that on March lo. Major 
Lewis had said in Mr. IngersoU's presence that 
Jackson might take up the tariff question and 
make it his own, but as to the bank, he said, " I do 
not know his sentiments." 

Later, Mr. Biddle was himself in Washington 
taking an active personal part in the question of 
recharter.3^ Establishing himself at a hotel, hosts 
of legislators there paid court to him, and, under 
the seductive inspiration of their flattery and 
pushed on by the ardent Clay, the fatal determina- 
tion was arrived at to force the President's hand. 
Accordingly, they pushed their bill through Con- 
gress, and the adjournment of the session was then 
so arranged that the President must veto the bill 
or let it become a law. The result is well known. 
The bill, which was so passed and vetoed, contained 
some of the provisions which Mr. Livingston had 
urged, but in the main omitted them. The pro- 
visions in regard to State taxation and against 
holding real estate were in the bill in modified 
forms, but the others were all omitted. It is clear 
that as the fight waxed hot in Washington, and 
under the inspiration of Clay's strong will, Mr. 

176 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Biddle and all the bank's supporters became over- 
bold and convinced that they had the game in 
their hands. 

Nor did the veto disabuse them, for they looked 
confidently for the overthrow of Jackson in the 
elections. Mr, Biddle wrote 37 that he was de- 
lighted with the veto message, and that it ex- 
hibited " all the fury of a chained panther, biting 
the bars of his cage." The fundamental error of 
the bank was in the constant assumption that its 
stockholders had a vested right to be rechartered. 
This cannot be admitted for a moment, but they 
always assumed it, and from this postulate easily 
convinced themselves that the President was 
" making war" upon them when he questioned 
and later vetoed recharter. From the time of the 
veto — whatever was the case before — even the 
stoutest partisan of the bank must admit that it 
entered actively into politics and " made war" 
upon the President, and justified the charge that it 
was arrogating to itself the position of a " new 
estate in the realm." 

This was the feature of the contest which mainly 
led to Mr. Ingersoll's becoming an opponent of the 
bank, but his action was also influenced by other 
causes. His feelings of admiration and gratitude 
to Jackson had been augmented by personal ac- 
quaintance in Washington, and he had become 
convinced that he was pre-eminently the man to 

12 177 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

look to to save the tariff and to steer the country 
in safety through the perils that were threatening 
from the Southern discontents. Hence, though he 
doubtless regretted the veto of the Bank bill, he 
was a supporter of the Tariff Act, which was signed 
by the President within a few days of the veto, and 
he continued to support the administration. Nor, 
though the bank influence was then supreme in 
Philadelphia, and the whole atmosphere was reek- 
ing with hatred of the President and of the veto, 
did he hesitate publicly to announce his intention, 
but as early as July i8 published the following 
letter in the American Sentinel : 

"The long and intimate connexion I have had with the 
cause of domestic industry, and my settled conviction that 
its protection is essential to the independence and pros- 
perity of this country, induce me at the present moment, 
when that cause has just passed through a great trial, en- 
dangering the union itself, to submit to my fellow citizens, 
especially of my native city and state, the reasons which 
convince me that to support the present administration is the 
surest means of maintaining what is called the American 
system, and the union of these United States, on which 
the only practicable American System altogether depends. 

" Residence at the seat of government during a consid- 
erable part of the late session of Congress, afforded me 
continual opportunities of being satisfied, by personal in- 
tercourse with the President and otherwise, that General 
Jackson has well considered the subject, is well informed 
in its principles and details, and inflexibly determined to 

178 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

sustain by his official and personal intluencc every branch 
of essential manufactures. 

"The government of the United States has become 
much more complicated and difficult than formerly, owing 
chiefly to the question of legislative protection, to encour- 
age the industry of a country so extensive and diversified 
in its regions, so peculiar and independent in its political 
structure, as this. The acknowledged imperfections of 
the former Tariff acts, and the complaints of the south, 
imposed upon the federal government the unavoidable 
duty of a judicious compromise. I have reason to know 
that Mr. Madison, we have all seen that Mr. Adams and 
Mr. Clay, together with others of our most experienced 
and responsible statesmen, and a great majority of the 
people, deemed such a measure indispensable to preserve 
either manufactures or the union. I can bear witness, and 
I deem it a duty to do so, from actual and unbiassed ob- 
servation, while at the seat of government, that for the 
accomplishment of this vital compromise we are all deeply 
indebted to the personal exertions, the official courage and 
the devoted patriotism of General Jackson. 

" Now that the crisis is probably over, there may still be 
some alarm in the East, and more disaffection in the 
South. But as far as it is possible to andcipate results, 
all the great national interests have reason not only to be 
satisfied, but gradfied. The recent Act of Congress places 
them all on a more solid and permanent foundation than 
they ever enjoyed before. The revenue has been taken 
mosdy from articles not requiring protection. Iron, Cotton 
and Sugar, with the accessional branches of industry, are 
well secured. Woollen, the only interest respecting which 
there is any doubt, is fortified b)- the enacted principle of 
what is conceived to be sufficient protection, which can 

179 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and no doubt will be hereafter carried farther, if experi- 
ence should prove it to be necessary. The modifications 
incorporated with the new law, especially that abridging 
credits, are not only equivalents but improvements, which 
render the system more effectual by simplifying it ; and 
there is every reason to trust that American industry will 
hereafter more certainly than heretofore enjoy the home 
market, without distress from foreign incursions, which is 
all it has ever required or can expect from Government. 

"At the same time nullifaction is, if not disarmed, at 
least put in the wrong ; and the southern adherents of the 
Union, who are among its most valuable members, 
strengthened with the means of resisting its assailants, 
without an appeal to force. 

" I have never been one of those believing that General 
Jackson can do no wrong. There are acts, and indeed 
avowed principles, of his administration, of which I do not 
approve ; not doubting that he is as indulgent to the sin- 
cere dissent of others, as I think they should be to what 
may be deemed his errors. But in common with the rest 
of the American people I learned from the heart to identify 
him with the salvation and glory of our country, when by 
his admirable courage, discretion and humanity he saved 
this Union from dissolution in bloodshed and conquest at 
the close of the last war with Great Britain. The warm 
affection which then united the people to him is a gen- 
erous sentiment ; and the personal power with which it 
raised him to the Chief Magistracy is an honest and avail- 
able popularity, which may be turned to the greatest ac- 
count. It qualifies him more than any other of our citi- 
zens, to preserve the Union on which the character, 
happiness and prospects of this country depend. — Every 
one must choose between the great parties into which we 

1 80 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOEE 

are divided, who will not throw his mite away in useless, 
selfish neutrality. While the maxim of every republican 
should be measures not men, yet in the choice of men, 
without reckoning the debt of irredeemable gratitude 
•which we owe to General Jackson, even upon a dispas- 
sionate calculation of the public recommendations of the 
eminent persons now candidates for the Chief Magistracy, 
I hold it to be best to abide by the honest voice of the 
people in his favour ; and to side with that man from 
whom consolidation and nullifaction have most to fear, 
the national union and industry most to hope. This ap- 
pears to me to be especially the true doctrine for my native 
city and state, the most constant and the most interested 
support of these great interests. And the conjuncture 
when every exertion is making to supplant the present 
administration, as its opponents claim with assurances of 
success, they must acknowledge to be the fittest moment 
for a freeman like themselves, who as an individual 
neither hopes or fears from General Jackson's administra- 
tion, without presuming to disparage their sentiments, to 

make known his own. 

" C. J. Ingersoll. 

"Philadelphia, iSthJuly 1S32." 

A few days after the date of this letter (July 23) 
a "veto meeting" was held in Philadelphia, at 
which Henry Horn presided, and Mr. Ingersoll 
and others made addresses. Resolutions were 
passed approving the veto, but the opposition 
papers maintained that more was said of Jackson 
than of the veto. They admitted, however, that 
there were nearly as many present as at the anti- 
veto meeting. During the canvass Mr. Ingersoll 

181 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

supported the Democratic nominees earnestly, as- 
serting his own view upon the bank question, but 
holding the opinion, as has been seen, that most 
of the great questions of the day were safest in 
Jackson's hands. I judge from his expressions 
that he had no great hope of Jackson's success, 
and such would naturally be his conclusion in the 
atmosphere of Philadelphia, where the bank's in- 
fluence was so enormous. 

From the time of Jackson's re-election, compro- 
mise between the bank and him was impossible, 
and the war became one of extermination. The 
bank had long held the role of an opponent of 
him personally ; but with his re-election the case 
became far worse, for the fact was emphasized that 
it was exerting a bitter hostility to the President 
of the country. Even were it possible that it could 
otherwise have saved itself, this was fatal, for the 
American people came to see that a body of 
money magnates was waging war against the gov- 
ernment which the people had chosen. One step 
led to another, and finally, in September of 1833, 
the order for the gradual removal of the public 
deposits from the bank was issued; and to this the 
bank replied in December by a most insolent 
report upon the well-known paper Jackson had 
read to his cabinet in September, which it recited 
as "a paper signed 'Andrew Jackson,' purporting 
to have been read to a cabinet on the i8th." 

182 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

All through this ill-judged report the President 
is referred to as "Andrew Jackson," between marks 
of quotation, while the " paper," as Schouler writes, 
is " held out as though between a pair of tongs" 
to suggest its spuriousness. It seems that this 
report was the step which finally decided Mr. In- 
gersoll. He had evidently long disapproved of 
the conduct and assumptions of the bank, and had 
become convinced that it possessed far too great 
power, and was assuming ground impossible to 
maintain ; but this studied insult to the President, 
and " appeal to coercion for recharter," as he once 
called it, was, I believe, the act which in his view 
capped the climax. 

Precisely when his mind was finally made up I 
do not know ; but the first public part he took 
against the bank was in March, 1834, at the meet- 
ing which was held in Philadelphia to approve 
the removal of the deposits. Before doing so he 
called on Mr. Biddle and announced 3^ at length 
his intentions and reasons. He was on the com- 
mittee to draft resolutions for this meeting, and 
the first fourteen resolutions appear to have been 
drawn by him ; the others 39 were drawn by 
Thomas Earle; but Mr. Ingersoll declined to pre- 
sent them at the meeting, and they were accord- 
ingly presented by the chairman, Mr, Dallas, Mr. 
Earle's resolutions approved in a few words tlie 
removal of the deposits, expressed opposition to 

183 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

their restoration and to the recharter of the bank, 
and approved of national conventions. Mr. Inger- 
soll's were more elaborate, and strongly empha- 
sized the fact that the struggle going on was one 
between the bank and the American government. 
The meeting was an enormous one, and the ex- 
tremely bitter state of party feeling found expres- 
sion in the speeches. 

This extreme bitterness of party feeling con- 
tinued for a number of years, and all the sup- 
porters of Jackson received their full meed of par- 
tisan dislike. Mr. IngersoU was quick-tempered 
and outspoken, and came in for more than a full 
share of this. He and his family were hissed on 
at least one occasion, while sitting at their win- 
dows, by the crowd marching away from a pro- 
bank meeting; and it is said, and is by no means 
unlikely, that a person he nominated to the Philo- 
sophical Society was black-balled because of his 
support. The people of power and influence were 
nearly all supporters of the bank, and were m a 
high degree proscriptive. It was by no means 
mere exaggeration when the Democrats spoke of 
the Bank Reign of Terror, and it is quite true that 
their opposition to the bank was '* at every peril 
of personal, social, professional, and political in- 
dignity and privation." 4° 



184 



CHAPTER VI. 

Banking System — " Committee Powers" — " River Rights" 
— Bush-Hill Address — Convention of 1837 — Mr. Inger- 
soll's Course in — Education and the Judiciary — Minority 
Report from Committee on Currency and Corporations 
— Nominated for Congress — Heated Campaign — The 
Bank in Politics — Case of Mr. IngersoU's Son John — 
The Sub-Treasury — Mr. IngersoU's Early Plan for — 
Contested Election — Third Campaign, and Election to 
Twenty-Seventh Congress. 

Mr. Ingersoll had always thought the power 
exercised by banks of suspending specie payments 
a great wrong and indefensible in law ; and he 
was strongly opposed to any paper money not 
immediately and at all times redeemable in coin. 
To confer on any body of men the power to issue 
notes otherwise was, he thought, to confer spe- 
cial privileges quite foreign to our system of gov- 
ernment. He was, indeed, generally suspicious 
of banks of issue, and in favor of closely limiting 
their powers. He was, moreover, fully convinced 
of the evils of the system under which State banks 
sprang up in such numbers and issued their notes 
broadcast, and thought the whole system of State 
banks bad, if not unconstitutional, and that the 

185 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

control of the currency as well as of the coinage 
should have been conferred on Congress. 

It has been shown that he was originally a sup- 
porter of the United States Bank, but his opinions 
were deeply influenced by the developments of the 
struggle between the bank and Jackson. Doubt- 
less he had at first merely accepted an existing 
state of affairs and had not considered its correct- 
ness or desirability. The bank was an institution 
at his own door, which to all outward appearance 
was in good condition and doing a good work, 
and he accepted it as a fact without special in- 
quiry. This is what all men do, in the vast 
majority of instances, and it is only when some 
striking proof is brought out in such cases that 
the opinions of a community are changed. But 
when the flagrant proof is forced upon the public 
by a powerful chain of dazzling evidence all point- 
ing the same way, a whole people will at times 
make an almost instant volte-face. We have seen 
this in more recent times, and it is largely what 
happened in the case of the United States Bank. 

It is certainly true that Jackson's party in Penn- 
sylvania almost to a man regretted at first his 
strictures upon the bank, and the same thing was 
true as to possibly a smaller proportion of his 
party throughout the country. To maintain, how- 
ever, that their later change of view was the result 
of interested motives is not only to be very unjust, 

i86 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

but to mistake greatly the influences which guide 
men and make their opinions. Still, it is one of 
the burdens of public life that such changes are 
attributed to selfish interest, though we all know 
that history can be ransacked and probably not a 
single character be found who has not radically 
changed many of his views in the course of his 
career and under the influence of the ever- 
changing circumstances of life and of varying 
knowledge. But none the less the public man 
must be very wary of the crime of inconsistency, 
and must not let his actions indicate that any 
hidden self-interest or hope of preferment led to 
his change of opinion. Mr. Ingersoll, though he 
had uniformly supported Jackson, even at a time 
when interested motives could hardly be suspected 
in a Philadelphian, was unwilling to accept office 
at his hands, and declined an appointment which 
was tendered him by the President through Mr. 
Forsyth. He preferred that his actions should 
not be open to suspicion. 

I suppose that from not long after 1830 he was 
anxious to obtain a seat in Congress in accordance 
with the plan he had formed many years before ; 
and from about that time his interest and his share 
in the great political events of the day were very 
great. Thus, when in May, 1834, the committee 
of the House came to Philadelphia to investigate 
the bank and was met by a resolution of the dircc- 

187 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

tors that their own committee should always be 
present, and that only written questions should be 
answered, the chairman consulted Mr. IngersolM* 
as to their powers and as to the advisability of 
issuing subpoenas to enforce the presence of wit- 
nesses. 

Mr, Ingersoll was very clear that they had full 
power to compel testimony, but advised, as a 
matter of policy, that they should report to the 
House for its action whenever their investigations 
were brought to a stand. This became the case 
before long, and the committee reported the facts 
to the House, but there the matter rested. Later 
a Senate committee in the bank's favor was ap- 
pointed, with authority to sit after the adjournment 
of the session. Mr. Ingersoll was of opinion that 
neither House of Congress had the power to au- 
thorize its committee to sit after its adjournment, 
and wrote " A View of the Committee Powers of 
Congress," in which this opinion was argued. It 
was one which he continued always to hold and 
repeatedly urged in Congress. Mr. Benton -^^ held 
the same opinion. 

Another public question in which he took much 
interest about this time was the contest between 
the city of Philadelphia and the Schuylkill Navi- 
gation Company. The latter claimed to own very 
broad powers in the waters of the river by grant 
from the Legislature. In " A View of River 

i88 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Rights" Mr. Ingersoll examined these claims and 
endeavored to refute them. 

In June, 1834, he bought from the estate of 
Zachariah Poulson a farm of about twenty-three 
acres situated in what was then the unincor- 
porated Northern Liberties. This country-seat, 
which he called " Foresthill," was about four 
miles from the State House, and became for many 
years his usual residence in the summer months. 
He probably at once took some part in the local 
politics of that portion of the city, and it was this 
district — the Third Congressional District of Penn- 
sylvania — which he later represented in Congress. 
On July 4, 1835, he delivered an address « at Bush 
Hill to the Democrats of the district, in which he 
reviewed the political events and some of the per- 
sonages of the day, making a close analysis of 
their tendencies and appealing altogether to the 
intellectual faculties of his hearers, Mr. Ingersoll 
was able to make a " stump" speech, but he usually 
appealed to his audience from a higher plane. On 
this occasion he said, — 

"The extraordinary veteran about to retire from the 
Chief Magistracy, has so administered it as to make it very 
difficult for any but a strict repubhcan to succeed him in 
its administration. . . . With deep insight into human 
nature, and a thorough knowledge of the character of the 
American people in particular, a moral firmness surpass- 
ing the warrior courage which first signalized him, forecast, 

189 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

profound address and wariness, far different from the 
hasty temper ascribed to him, and as France found to 
her cost, an iron fixedness of purpose that nothing can 
break or bend, indefatigably active, stirring, and enter- 
prising, he himself suggested the leading measures of his 
towering administration, from many of which his cabinet 
shrunk, and superintended himself their minutest details 
in publication and execution. Free and communicative 
as the air, yet secret as the grave, prompt to conceive, 
having by sustained success become confident in his own 
judgment, he refers it always to the standards of religious 
obligation and the point of honour. His antagonists abuse 
him because his governance has been what they admire, 
the vigorous administration of a single executive. As- 
suming no power but that conferred by the constitution, he 
has shown that the power it does confer, in the hands of a 
popular president, renders our government what Mr. 
Jefferson considered it, the strongest in the world. The 
star of Jackson has been so long so lucky, that the Romans 
would have surnamed him Felix or Fortunatus. The Ro- 
manism of his character was remarked by iMr. Jefferson. 
Patriotism is an instinct with him ; republicanism also a 
natural impulse ; and Americanism likewise — that noble 
independence of European supremacy which flourishes 
most beyond the Alleghany Mountains ; the spirit of the 
Declaration of Independence, that all men are equal ; a 
generous, jealous disdain of other men's superiority, like 
chastity to women, a conservative manly principle indis- 
pensable to poHdcal and social dignity. For a thousand fac- 
titious and time-serving calculations, he substitutes the trans- 
cendant power of ingrained straightforwardness, and for 
all the learning and all the talents, that mother wit without 
which they are all but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. 

190 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" In the radical work of his reforming presidency, which 
has taken away most of the modifications engrafted on the 
system of Jefferson, and restored the constitution to its 
primitive standard, Mr. Van Buren has been Gen. Jack- 
son's chief adviser and cordial aid; and the democratic 
party have selected him to succeed to the presidency as 
they elected him to the vice-presidency. . , . 

"No part of the United States has a deeper stake in 
their preservation by Mr. Van Burcn's election to the 
presidency, than those portions which may set up a South- 
ern candidate. Let Old England and New England say 
what they may of the Plantation States, they are the head- 
quarters of liberty, as the Western States are of indepen- 
dence, and the Eastern of equality. In Pennsylvania 
we are none of us friends of slavery. But such men as 
Montesquieu and Burke have borne their testimony to the 
fact that the love of freedom is most stubborn and jealous 
in the Southern masters of slaves. Such was the case in 
the ancient commonwealths, as it is in Virginia and the 
Carolinas. To which doctrine from Burke let me add an- 
other, that praise or blame does not belong to anything 
human on a simple view of the object, as it stands stripped 
of every relation, in all the nakedness and solitude of 
metaphysical abstraction. Slavery in the abstract is de- 
plorable and indefensible, and perhaps the brightest page 
of Pennsylvania's annals is that which contains \h.Q. first 
act for its gradual abolition. But slavery in the United 
States is no more an abstraction than liberty. The Union 
found it in the Union, part and lot of the Union, and was 
constrained to sanction it as a strand in the bands of 
Union, which to take away is to sunder the whole. . . . 

" Mr. Webster's connexion is with that once pronounced 
party, and always influential portion of the United States, 

191 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

which stands aloof from the democratic standards and ap- 
proximates to those of England ; whigs but not democrats. 
A great lawyer, a distinguished senator, endowed with 
amazing powers of reasoning, the senatorial conflict, in 
which this distinguished gentleman overthrew nullification, 
raised him to high rank by a noble victory. But though 
always a leader in debate, when has he been such in 
action ? He has shewn much more talent for convincing 
than controlling men. Neither the government, nor any 
party has been influenced by his leading, while his shining 
career has been a series of discomfitures. He opposed the 
war, whatever may now be said, as unreservedly as any 
member of the party opposed to it. He opposed a bank 
when proposed by a democratic administration, and he 
insisted on the bank which forfeited public good will by its 
infatuation. He opposed the manufacturing interest when 
it wanted support, and supported it when its friends 
thought proper to reduce it for the sake of the Union. His 
whole course as a statesman proves him to be much more 
of an orator ; . • . 

"Mr. Webster's professional influence, much more 
signal than his political, has succeeded in corrupting 
American jurisprudence with some of the most extravagant 
and intolerable dogmas of the English code — nay what 
would now be rejected by it. What may be deemed his 
first great effort in the Supreme Court, was in the case 
of the Dartmouth College, when he induced that tribunal 
to carry the corporation privilege beyond all bounds, 
owing as has been thought to the absence of Rnkney, who 
was opposed to him ; and his latest labor there in the case 
of a Boston Insurance Company, prevailed over a majority 
of the bench to adopt one of the most unwarrantable aber- 
rations of the English maritime policy from the law of 

192 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

nations ; in the first mentioned case against the sound 
judgment of one dissentient democrat on the bench, 
and the law as taught from Locke to Hallam ; in the 
last against the judgment of all the democrats on the 
bench, and the law of all nations except modern Great 
Britain. . , . 

"All that is good in government is republican. It is 
all ascribable, under Providence, to the sovereignty of the 
people. Whatever since the English revolution has been 
achieved of great or good in England or France, is owing 
to the working of the democratic principle. Great Britain 
owes more to the impulses of her short-lived common- 
wealth, than to all her kings and ministers, and all the 
melioradons of which France may certainly boast, are 
ascribable to conventions and national assemblies in the 
first stages of her revolution. Even if the tendency of the 
democratic principle be downward, I for one prefer the 
despotism of democracy to that of monarchy or aristoc- 
racy. 

" It is this democratic principle which is to be promoted 
in the person of Martin Van Buren ; . . . 

" Let the educated and emulous youth of this knowing 
and aspiring, free and equal nation ponder this spirit, and 
strive for the patent of popular nobility, which, if conferred 
on Mr. Van Buren, the boy of Kinderhook, will put him 
far above all merely aristocratic privilege. Let them learn 
to think well of the people, and to do something for those 
who reward so magnificently. A demagogue is despica- 
ble ; a courder of the people, is worse than the courtier 
of a king ; an unprincipled counterfeiter of democracy, no 
democrat at all. But sincere confidence in the virtue of 
the people, honest and generous study of their good, in- 
flexible attachment to liberty and equality, and repugnance 
13 »93 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

to exclusive privileges, make a patriot in any country, and 
a president in this. The most absolute spirit of popularity, 
which shone in Hampden, the most accomplished gentle- 
man as well as the first statesman of England, in Lafay- 
ette, a like conspicuous instance of the popular nobility in 
France, in Washington, Jefferson and Madison, — that 
loyalty of republicanism, which is as superior to monarchical 
patriotism, as Christianity is to paganism — eclipses by its 
light and immortality the little stars of rank, fashion, 
wealth and social exclusiveness. Far be it from this day 
of the declaration of independence and equality, to dis- 
parage or undervalue private respectability and merely 
social distinction. In this country, wealth may be safe in 
its enjoyments, and fashion is perfectly free in its fantasies. 
But again, and finally, I say to the educated and emulous 
youth of these United States — let them contemplate Mr. 
Madison in his retirement ; after filling all the high places 
which the people have to give as the reward of that real 
popularity, which is followed by, instead of following after 
them ; a man who, without ever appealing to a passion, 
rose to eminence and renown, by the slow but certain 
growth of calm reason and sincere devotion to the public 
good — let them think of this surviving patriarch of democ- 
racy, enthroned in his magnificent seclusion — and learn 
from it to prefer and promote the democratic principle. It 
is this principle which is our country. It is the band of 
American Union — the spring of American prosperity — the 
scripture of American distinction. It is our three estates 
in one. It is this which made Mr. Van Buren President 
of the Senate that rejected him ; and if it makes him Presi- 
dent of the United States, will bind him to the preservation 
and furtherance of the democratic principle, by all the 
ways of pleasantness, in all the paths of peace." 

194 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

At this time in Pennsylvania the question of a 
convention to reform the constitution had become 
an issue of great moment. There had been a des- 
perate contest upon the same question in 1805, in 
the days of Duanc, but the reformers were so 
beaten that they carefully avoided any suggestion 
of the matter for years. Gradually, however, 
public opinion ripened, and the Legislature in 
1835 passed an act submitting the question to 
vote. Shortly after his Bush-Hill address Mr. 
Ingersoll was called upon for his views, and wrote 
in reply a public letter announcing that he had 
long had a strong feeling against change, but had 
finally come to the conclusion that it was indis- 
pensable in many parts of the constitution. He 
took part in the proceedings of the meeting at 
Doylestown in September in favor of the conven- 
tion, and was chairman of the committee to draft 
their address. One of the points which the re- 
formers advocated was an extension of the right 
of suffrage ; and it is instructive to observe how 
the suffrage was extended by the amendments 
adopted in 1838, although the language of the 
new provision was not so different from that uf 
the old one. 

The resolutions 44 of the Doylestown Conven- 
tion and the public " pledges" of some of the 
candidates were in favor of a " greater extension 
and equality in the right of suffrage," and recited 

195 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

that the existing law was arbitrary and unequal, 
because it caused the privilege " to depend on the 
preconceived notions of the inspector and to vary 
with the various election districts." The amend- 
ments of 1838 for the first time strictly limited the 
suffrage to wJiitc freemen, and it seems that in 
some counties free blacks had been allowed to 
vote. In December, 1837, in the Quarter Sessions 
of Bucks County, in a contest of the election of 
Abraham Frctz as commissioner. Judge Fox re- 
viewed the history and legislation upon the sub- 
ject at some length, and held that it was very 
clear that free blacks could not be allowed to vote. 
He said,'»5 — 

" From the best information I have been able to obtain, 
no negro has ever voted in the city or county of Philadel- 
phia, where there were probably more negroes than in all 
the rest of the State. In the majority of the counties they 
have not been suffered to vote, and the practice to permit 
them to do so anywhere, grew up long after the adoption 
of the constitution." 

The popular vote was decidedly in favor of a 
convention, and the next Legislature passed a law 
for the election of delegates. At this election 
Mr. Ingersoll was one of the members chosen. 
The convention assembled at Harrisburg in May, 
1837, and comprised many of the ablest men of 
the State, but unfortunately its meeting was at the 

outbreak of the panic of that year. Active as 

196 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Mr. Ingersoll was throughout this body's sitting, 
it is not my intention to examine the proceed- 
ings at much length. Whether he and his friends 
were right in their assertion that from the very 
start the convention was managed in a highly 
partisan way, certain it is that it was at least man- 
aged in a way which in the main excluded them 
from much influence, and what they did succeed 
in accomplishing was won only after hard and 
continued fighting. They maintained that the 
committees were all organized against them, and 
it was with great difficulty that Mr. Ingersoll se- 
cured a special committee on currency and cor- 
porations, of which he was chairman. Even this, 
too, was so constituted by Mr. Sergeant that its 
chairman found himself in a minority, — a proceed- 
ing on the part of the president of the convention 
which Mr. Ingersoll wrote to Mr. Gilpin was con- 
trary to all parliamentary usage and common 
decency. However this may be, the result at 
least was that the committee came near to making 
no report at all, but merely strangling the whole 
subject by a disagreement. 

Among the subjects upon which he took an 
active part were education and the judiciary. 
Until the acts of 1834 and 1836 there had been 
only a most insufficient public school system in 
the State, the Legislature having in the main 
neglected to carry out the constitutional provi- 

197 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

sions. The ill effects of this Mr. Ingersoll dilated 
on at length, and proposed a mandatory provision 
that would insure the right to a public education 
to all children. He did not succeed in this effort, 
and the existing provision of the constitution was 
not altered, but the agitation of the subject doubt- 
less had its effect, and the laws of 1834 and 1836, 
which had been bitterly opposed, remained upon 
the statute-book and became the basis of a good 
system. Mr. Ingersoll also proposed that chil- 
dren should be taught in English or German as 
localities might prefer, being of opinion that the 
experience of almost all other countries showed 
that two languages would be by no means unde- 
sirable. Mr. Duponceau, who was not, however, 
a member of the convention, agreed with him in 
this, but the proposition was voted down. 

Upon the judiciary, also, he spoke at length, and 
was in favor of leaving the power of appointment 
with the Governor, with the approval of the Senate, 
with a new provision that the Governor should 
have the right to remove upon vote of the Repre- 
sentatives. Many highly partisan judges bur- 
dened our benches at that time, and many infirm 
and useless ones held on to office under what was 
called a tenure of good behavior but was in reality 
(as was said at the time) one for life. Mr. Inger- 
soll's desire was that the judiciary should be inde- 
pendent but not " irresponsible." His proposition 

198 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

did not succeed, and the tenure finally inserted 
was for a term of years. 

Another subject which he specially discussed was 
that of banks and corporations generally, and their 
powers and mode of charter. The Legislature 
was in those days incessantly besieged for charters 
for all sorts of purposes, and gross abuses un- 
doubtedly prevailed in their grant. Moreover, the 
most extravagant claims for perpetual rights there- 
under were made under the doctrine of the Dart- 
mouth College case. Upon motion of Mr. Meredith, 
the convention had voted by substantial majo.-ities 
not only " that contracts made on the faith of the 
commonwealth are and of right ought to be in- 
violable," but further " that a charter duly granted 
by act of Assembly is, when accepted, a contract 
with the parties to whom the grant is made." 
The latter clause was of course opposed by Mr. 
Ingersoll, but in a speech on bank charters he 
argued with great elaboration that they in any 
event are entirely excluded from any such doc- 
trine. After arguing against the whole doctrine 
of the Dartmouth College case, he contended that, 
even admitting it true, banks stand on an entirely 
different ground, for they exercise a public organic 
function and constitute a part of the State's ma- 
chinery, which must necessarily be within its 
control. His argument upon this subject was 
evidently prepared with care, and was very closely 

199 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

reasoned. Some of the same discussion was con- 
tained in his minority report from the Committee 
on Currency and Corporations, which he had pre- 
sented at an earlier date. This report took strong 
ground against inconvertible paper money. 

"The effort," it said, "to coin money out of paper is 
as absurd as alchymy. Nothing can make a promise on 
paper to pay a dollar, equal to the actual payment of a 
dollar : and, whenever the promise is by law made equal 
to the fact, the promiser thus privileged unjustly gains at 
the expense of all others, not so privileged. . . . All 
paper, not immediately convertible into coin, is of no 
value, and its credit is merely fictitious. The use of it is 
like substituting ardent spirits for solid food, as the suste- 
nance of life. It intoxicates and ruins. . . . It is a gross 
delusion, of which it is high time to disabuse the public, 
that our banking system is the spring of those rapid im- 
provements and advances in commerce, manufactures, 
and the useful arts, which distinguish England and the 
United States, beyond all other countries. The parentage 
of these improvements is liberty united with labor. Credit 
can but lend, while industry always gives. And bank 
credit never even lends without incumbering its debtors 
with mortgages and hypothecations. The goods, towns, 
roads, canals, and other creations, which we too often 
ascribe to credit, are really due to work, to that incessant 
labor which freemen delight in, whose chief pleasure is 
constant employment. All banks might be struck from 
existence without disadvantage to it. The aid they afford 
to enterprise is always incumbered with onerous securities, 
quickly and mercilessly exacted. Individual assistance, 

200 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

by loans from capitalists, would be much more service- 
able. Bank resources cannot be greater than the aggre- 
gate means of the community, and all capitalists would 
be lenders, if banks were not privileged to monopolise 
loans. They make a specious credit, the counterfeit of 
capital, a sort of volcanic capital, always on the point of 
explosion, every time it bursts, diminishing confidence in 
banks, which must soon be altogether exhausted of credit 
with all who take any heed from experience. There are 
few now living who have not had more than one serious 
warning, that discount loans cost more, and yield less, 
than individual loans, and that instead of being a succour, 
they are fetters to enterprise." 



The recommendations of the report were to 
limit the capital of banks ; to make their charters 
always open to alteration or repeal by law ; to 
limit their right to issue or discount notes ; to 
render all stockholders personally responsible; 
and to forbid preferences by insolvent debtors in 
favor of banks. These recommendations and the 
views expressed in the report were gall and worm- 
wood to the pro-bank members, who were satu- 
rated with the panicky terrors incident to their 
class in a time of money disturbance. In every 
word of the report their terrorized imaginations 
conjured up a " mob" and a French Revolution. 
Accordingly, a motion to print both the majority 
and minority reports was voted down, after an 
excited debate, in the course of which ]\Ir. Stevens 

20 1 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

denounced the minority report in a coarse and 
characteristic speech, and used such terms as 
" raw Irishmen," " imported patriots," " wild bulls," 
"Jack Cades," and "purlieus of polluted cities." 

All these terms were so plainly pointed at the 
author of the report that Mr. IngersoU called for 
an explanation, and Mr. Stevens replied that he 
did not mean to be personal. Though the report 
was thus refused publication and w^as violently 
abused by all bank and corporation men, yet it 
was very widely printed all over the country, and 
some of its recommendations were placed in our 
organic law. I presume that it can hardly be 
questioned that the very valuable provision of the 
constitutional amendments of 1838, that all bank 
charters should contain a clause reserving to the 
Legislature the right to alter or revoke them, was 
largely due to the efforts of Mr. IngersoU in this 
report and on the floor of the convention. Simi- 
lar provisions have since been made in other States, 
and our present constitution contains a still wider 
provision upon the same subject. 

Many other subjects were discussed by Mr. 
InfjersoU in the convention, but I shall close my 
examination of this portion of his history with a 
couple of letters from him to Mr. Gilpin, which 
will admirably show his intimate feelings in re- 
gard to some of the proceedings of the conven- 
tion : 

902 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" Philada. Dec 20. 37 
"Dear Sir, — I send you by this mail an extract from 
my last speech, delivered because I was overurged and 
tormented to take up Sergeant's gauntlet flung on the 
floor cum ira — for my mi7id is, has been and will be ab- 
sorbed by the great question at hand but not yet before 
us — on the repeal of charters. We shall beat them in all 
but votes. Whether I shall ever be able to write out what 
was only the preliminary speech I don't know. It is a 
terrible labor : and really for the last 3 days at Harrisburg 
and the first 3 weeks here we have been obliged to sleep 
on our arms and be booted and spurred all day long for a 
melee. I have therefore published driblets of it — that 
now sent to you being the second. 

Soon after we came here from Harrisburg, Sergeant in 
conversation with an active politician here — I know the 
fact — was told that Harrison is to yield to Clay. After 
objecting to that change but yielding a little, he began to 
question as to what was to be done for a Vicep. and at 
last put the point plump — what are you going to do with 
me? To which he reed, an answer that has caused us 
already three weeks of the coarsest and fiercest party 
debate, for our President came next day so distempered 
that he vented it like thunder on the first word of the 
first speaker that fell in his way. With eyes starting from 
their sockets, face like scarlet, gestures the wildest and 
words the hardest, he screamed till his voice disappeared, 
and was of course so much ashamed of it afterwards that 
when, after the cooling influences of a fortnight I bore up, 
as he saw tompions out, quietly taking the weather gage 
for a broadside, he started up from the clerk's table where 
he was sitting, and in the softest tones swallowed all his 
words, could not recollect them, softened them — in short 

203 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

saved himself from all but a shot over his quarter to mark, 
as I understand even his own adherents in the gallery did 
by a buzz sufficiently audible, that he hauled down the 
red and hoisted the white flag just in the nick of time. 
Five or six lawyers of our cohort have deserted since we 
came to Philadelphia, and I should not be surprised if 
more were to go. 

"I have as you suppose a volume of your Tacitus 
which I still hope to read : but until this Convention ends 
or at least the tornado now distracting it ; literature, so- 
ciety, conviviality, all but sheer hard politics is out of the 

question." 

" Philada Jan i 1S3S 

" Dear Sir, — I don't know whether you have seen the 
other published extract of my last speech, not that I sent 
you, which contains some curious particulars extracted 
from a letter dated June 18 12 from old Mr. Adams to the 
late Dr. Rush. I do not think it has appeared in the 
Globe or any other Washington paper, tho' in my appre- 
hension well deserving dissemination as a very comfort- 
able as well as curious bit of the philosophy of history. It 
is moreover my last (except one, if I resolve to publish 
that), as since the receipt of your late letter I have been 
near executing a design, ruminated for sometime, of with- 
drawing from the excitement of public life, to mind my 
business a little — utterly neglected for some months, not 
only professional but private and even the most indispen- 
sable family concerns. I have been a slave and I long 
for emancipation. My resignation as member of the Con- 
vention was to have been presented this morning, but that 
I have been prevailed upon by strong expostulations of 
our democratic friends not to cause a special election, in 
which the last committee who waited on me to remonstrate 

204 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

against my design, late last night, Benj. Mifflin and John 
Horn, say a federalist would be chosen to succeed me by 
a majority of at least one thousand ! I had made up my 
mind, as I told them, not to vacate my seat, from that 
apprehension, but I am heartily tired and disgusted, and 
mere inactive membership is all I shall submit to. You 
will see my name to the invitation for the 8th but I took 
no part, shall not attend, have refused to be their orator, 
and mean to fall back on Tacitus and other more rational 
occupation than this abominable politics, in which, as Mr. 
Livingston used to say, not only is the play not worth the 
candle, but the annoyances from one's own friends are 
altogether insufferable. The immediate cause of my dis- 
content, which you may have seen has been long brewing, 
is this :— Ever since the question of the right to repeal 
charters was moved a few days before we left Harrisburg, 
I have been, (resisting continual importunity to speak 
unprepared) at work almost every day before light and 
constantly, casting aside everything else, arming to the 
teeth for this greatest of issues ; and tho' not as completely 
ready as I should like to be, yet more so, I venture to say, 
than any other man — and just when about to make an 
argument on which I am anxious to stake my all what do 
the donocraiic members of Convention, under the lead of 
Earle and Brown, uniting with the dolts & boobies of all 
parties — always a large majority — but pass a regulation 
that no member shall speak more than an hour at a time, 
so that after poor Woodward and I, the only ones of our 
side who can draw this bow at all, tried to speak under 
that vile rule, the upshot was his failure by trying to con- 
dense what cannot be crushed into an hour, and my 
speaking less than a quarter of my argument when, tho' 
possibly I might have got leave to go on, yet scorning to 

205 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

speak by permission, I declared that I could not submit to 
such murder, and gave up, saying to all who chose to 
hear it — not as part of the speech, but in personal conver- 
sation — that I wd. not submit to remain a member of a 
body in which my own party thus fettered me, that I wd. 
retire (as I did that day — Friday) take till to-day to deter- 
mine, and this morning, unless I should think better 
of it, send in my resignation. The certain result of the 
special election to supply my place, together with as I am 
told the chuckling of the federalists at the prospect, have 
so far fettered me again, that I can not do what I am 
satisfied would be right and popular so far as I am alone 
concerned. But as far as a retired and cjuiet spring sum- 
mer and autumn, taking no further, active, part in the 
Convention or politics, so far at any rate, I am my own 
master. I incline to think that I shall publish the sup- 
pressed speech, but at my leisure, sometime hence but 
that will be all my contribution to polidcs and that is of 
the higher order — To me amusements this winter, of 
which I have denied myself all, to be dedicated to this 
unlucky speech, a long journey southwest in the spring, 
and Foresthill quietly in the summer are my pleasant, 
present dreams. I have taken up Tacitus once more in 
the early morning — recommencing with that capital por- 
trait of Petronius, arbiter elegandae — and les Memoires 
d'un homme d'Etat in the evening, with a gusto that is as 
healthful as it is delightful : and this very day will be de- 
voted, even while at my seat in Convention, to preparing 
my much too long neglected letter for the Atty. Genl. 
about my untoward rebuff* by that little Wolf rejecdng 



* I do not know to what this refers. 
206 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

the $2000 of my debt — yes debt, another bondage. Let 
me look to that, a Uttle, and hang the scurvy poHtics." 



During the early sessions of the Constitutional 
Convention Mr. IngersoU's name was proposed in 
several papers for the Governorship, and at about 
the same time he was nominated for Congress in 
the Third District to fill the vacancy caused by the 
death of Mr. Harper, 

This district included the Northern Liberties, 
Kensington, Spring Garden, and a few smaller 
outlying districts and townships of the county of 
Philadelphia. The opposing nominee was Charles 
Naylor, and the campaign was a very active and 
bitter one. Mr. IngersoU was attacked in the 
press in the most violent way, and all possible and 
impossible stories were raked up against him. 
The old " would-have-been-a-tory" accusation had 
to be answered and explained. His dispute with 
the Treasury over his accounts as District Attor- 
ney was misrepresented, and he was called a de- 
faulter, but this charge he was fortunately able to 
answer by the result of the public trial he had in- 
sisted upon, and by the letter of the jury which had 
heard the case. That old and jaded war-horse of 
political slander, the charge of having caused the 
arrest of a woman for debt, was brought out 
against him, but the original record of the sheriff's 
return in this unhappy lady's case cleared up this 

207 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

story. It was charged that he had in 1832 "be- 
trayed the cause of the manufacturers," — a frequent 
sin of public men, if the protected interests are 
to be beheved ; but this story was met by some 
correspondence of the period. And the Whigs 
appear to have been very severe upon him — a 
hard-money man — for having (as they charged) 
recently bought a cow and given a note for the 
amount. 

On the Democratic side the contest was an- 
nounced to be that of " IngersoU and hard money 
against shin-plaster Whiggery." The Pamsylva- 
nian defiantly asked, "What are the political 
opinions of Charles Naylor ? Does anybody know 
— can anybody tell ?" and summed up by say- 
in"- that against Mr. IngersoU, the hard-money 
Democrat, was set up Naylor, " the candidate of 
the Bank Whigs, the craped eagle gentry, who 
were defeated in 1834 and 1836 . . . who are 
justly regarded as Shin-Plaster or Paper- Money 
Whigs, and whose highest principle is strict obe- 
dience to the orders of ' Biddle and the bank.' " 
Sketches of Mr. Ingersoll's life and public services 
were printed at length, and at least one letter from 
a private person told the public how kindly the 
Democratic candidate had some years before aided 
him in establishing himself in business. This 
letter was printed in German and in English, and 
was from a German, who closed by saying that 

208 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

any one might converse with him upon the subject 
at his residence, the " Drei Tonnen Gasthof," in 
Third Street between Callowhill and Vine. 

The intense interest taken in the election was 
shown in the result ; for, though the vote at special 
elections generally falls off, yet in this instance 
both candidates received considerably more votes 
than the candidates for the same office had re- 
ceived at the Congressional election in the fall of 
1836. Mr. Naylor was successful by about two 
hundred and thirty majority, carrying nearly all 
the separate districts except Kensington, where 
Mr. IngersoU received nearly two votes to one for 
his opponent. The day after the election Mr. 
IngersoU published a letter, in which he said, — 

"... To the many requests I received by numerous 
letters at Harrisburg to become your candidate for Con- 
gress, my answer was, that I did not feel at hberty to 
decline such a contest in the present crisis, any more than 
I would to refuse turning out to defend my country if 
invaded by enemies. Accepting, therefore, the unsought 
and perilous nomination, I left other duties to attend the 
canvass as a duty, and you will say that I went through it 
with unintermitting, unblenching, and unflinching con- 
stancy, doing and bearing everything I could. We have 
been defeated ; owing to your confidence, which from 
first to last I never felt, and to the superior means and 
method of our opponents. I have taken all occasions for 
some time to warn the democracy of numbers, that a long 
and desperate struggle is to rage with the upstart aristoc- 
14 209 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

racy of paper money, privilege, and monopoly. Yester- 
day's Special Election was but the skirmish to bring on 
the general engagement, which will be fought with unex- 
ampled fury between the antagonist principles and parties, 
never to cease till either the sovereignty of the people is 
established, or the predominance of the vulgar aristocracy 
is made part and lot of American republicanism. In the 
first set-to, you put me forward in a conspicuous place, 
where I endeavored to do my best. We are discomfited, 
but, I trust, not dismayed ; . . . Although beaten, we are 
united — never was the democracy of Pennsylvania more 
so, or more in need of being so." 



Mr. Ingersoll's more intimate feelings in rej^ard 
to the election were contained in a letter to Mr. 
Gilpin, in which, after quoting the opinion of some 
friend that his defeat was owing to " traitors," he 
went on, — 

" I know the traitors, but they did not prevent my elec- 
tion. It might have been carried as easily as kiss my 
hand, and was lost exactly as I told you and many others 
it would be — for want of discipline. We had plenty of 
votes and all the raw material of success : but, whenever 
we meet, I will tell you of such damnable neglect of the 
simplest organization and forecast as will satisfy you how 
we were beaten. So much the worse for Mr. Van Buren, 
but for me it has brought such reaction of popular good 
will exasperated to quite a pitch of endearment that, con- 
nected with certain doubts I always had of the wisdom of 
the experiment, leaves me in a condition of gratification. 

2IO 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

I expect to be in Washington before long, and then we 
may hold large discourse looking before and after." 



It must be admitted that much of the bandying 
of epithets which has been quoted is not inspiring, 
but it was full of meaning. The contest was be- 
tween paper-money Whigs and hard-money Dem- 
ocrats, and it was quite an allowable exaggeration 
to say that the highest principle of the Whigs was 
obedience to Biddle and the bank. We must not, 
under the rather repellent influence of such horse- 
talk, forget that Mr. Biddle and the institution he 
had ruled over, and which came so near a few 
years later to being reinstated, had wielded powers 
of a stupendous nature. Not only in the realms 
of finance did tiie overgrown power of the bank 
reign supreme, but it and its president revelled in 
stupendous plans for controlling absolutely the 
cotton and other business of the country, and it 
cannot be denied that it had a dangerous influence 
in politics. 

Indeed, to put it in this language is making the 
case vastly less strong than it is, for the bank 
showed a stupendous and nearly controUing polit- 
ical power in the contest with Jackson, and the 
victory over it was obtained only after the utmost 
difficulty. Probably the bank would have suc- 
ceeded had the Democrats been led by a less 
popular or less determined leader than Jackson ; 

211 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and certainly had Clay been elected in that mem- 
orable contest of 1832 the power of the vast 
moneyed institution would have been a serious 
menace. 

We see enough to-day of the corrupting and 
dangerous influence of corporations in politics to 
know that the existence of a single enormous in- 
stitution which extended its operations over the 
whole country would have been fraught with the 
greatest danger. That these bodies have come in 
time to exert so powerful an influence upon legisla- 
tion and in politics generally as they do is no reason 
why public men sixty years ago should not have 
done their utmost to restrain them ; and it must be 
remembered that the United States Bank was rela- 
tively of far greater power than any corporation 
to-day. It towered supreme above all others then 
existing, and had no possible competitor, while its 
extremely close relations to the government and 
its system of branches scattered over the country 
gave it a power of united action from one end of 
the land to the other, such as does not exist even 
in our to-day's midsummer ripeness of corporation 
rule. Some writers have denied its interference in 
politics, but historians will certainly admit it, 
whatever partisan writers may do. It was per- 
sistently and for years in the habit of retaining 
leading public men as its counsel, and many of 

them received its favors as borrowers. And it 

212 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOEL 

cannot be doubted that those pubHc men who 
dared oppose it came to suffer for their audacity. 

In Mr. Ingersoll's own immediate family there 
was an instance of this kind. One of his sons, 
John, had gone South, and in the autumn of 1837 
moved to Natchez at the suggestion of Mr. 
Humphreys, of the firm of Bevan & Humphreys, 
of Philadelphia. The purpose of his removal was 
to take charge — to use Mr. Humphreys's words — 
" of my Liverpool house, Humphreys & Biddle ;" 
and this latter house was to give him a credit, 
confirmed by the United States Bank, to draw 
upon the Liverpool firm. It was stated in the 
newspaper correspondence which arose later that 
Mr. Nicholas Biddle was very active in all this. 

Upon the issuing of the letter of credit, guaran- 
teed by the bank, Mr. IngersoU moved to Natchez. 
The course of business was that he gave planters 
some sixty per cent, of the value of cotton, for 
which he received the bills of lading and sent 
them and the cotton to the London firm. The 
idea was that cotton was bound to increase in 
price, and in this way the planter could get enough 
cash to enable him to delay the sale of his cotton 
and secure the better price. This course of busi- 
ness was carried on for a year, and in October, 
1838, Mr. IngersoU, having no reason to suppose 
that his agency had been revoked, published a 

notice to the effect that he was still ready to make 

213 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

the advances. To this Bevan & Humphreys sud- 
denly rephed in December, evidently without any 
notice to him, that he was not their agent and had 
no authority in the matter. 

In due time Humphreys & Biddle published a 
like card in London, which found its way into the 
American papers. This led to a bitter contro- 
versy, in which Mr. John Ingersoll showed con- 
clusively that his agency in the matter had been 
recognized by the London firm within eight days 
of their published notice denying his agency ; and 
his charge was that they were forced to make the 
second publication by the United States Bank. 
He was informed by Mr. Cabot (the active mem- 
ber of the Philadelphia firm) that the notice pub- 
lished in Philadelphia denying his agency had 
been written by Mr. Nicholas Biddle, and " as to 
the much controverted subject of the illicit con- 
nection of Humphreys & Biddle and the Bank of 
the United States," he intimated that it was not 
likely that that firm had the capital to hold two 
hundred thousand bales of cotton a whole season, 
and further that he had evidence in his possession 
upon that point. 

The controversy 4^ ended here, apparently. It 
may have its value as an evidence of the power 
which the officers of the bank at least attempted 
to exercise in business affairs, and what their 
power might have become had the bank been re- 

214 



chari.es jared ingersoel 

chartered. No reason appears why John IngersoU 
was treated as he was in the matter : all intention 
to charge him with any impropriety was denied 
by those who so suddenly harmed him, and it is 
impossible to avoid the conclusion that his father's 
political course was at least part of the cause which 
influenced them. 

At the time when Mr. Ingersoll was nominated 
and defeated for Congress at the special election 
in 1837, the public men of the country had before 
them a most difficult problem to arrange the gov- 
ernment's finances. The Bank of the United 
States was a thing of the past, and the experience 
with the State banks as aids in the Federal finances 
had been most disastrous. The vast money re- 
ceipts and payments of the government necessi- 
tated some financial branch, and it was an open 
question what this should be. After a great deal 
of dispute and difficulty, and only in the last year 
of Mr, Van Buren's administration, the problem 
was solved by what is known as the Sub- 
Treasury. 

This still existing system has been regarded as 
the most successful legislative device of Mr. Van 
Buren's administration, and writers generally have 
extolled him for its creation. Undoubtedly, great 
credit is due him, and, whether he was the origi- 
nator of the plan or not, he was certainly the chief 
force in bringing about its adoption. The credit 

215 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of the conception has been claimed almost exclu- 
sively for him, while von Hoist, on the other 
hand, says that it was proposed in Congress as 
early as 1834. Probably the truth is that, like 
most new things, it had been floating more or less 
vaguely in many minds for some years. Thus, in 
a speech in Independence Square as early as Octo- 
ber 29, 1832, Mr. Ingersoll said, " I have some 
reason to know that Mr. Jefferson suggested to the 
late Mr. Dallas some such scheme as a Treasury 
Bank hke that suggested by General Jackson in 
one of his late messages to Congress," 

There is clear proof that Mr. Ingersoll had the 
great outlines of the Sub-Treasury plan pretty 
clearly in his mind some three months before Mr, 
Van Buren first publicly recommended it in his 
message to Congress at the special session in 
September, 1837. On June 13 of that year, Mr, 
Ingersoll published in the Ptnnsylvanian a letter 
to the people of the Third Congressional District, 
in which he clearly laid down and advocated the 
plan of the Sub-Treasury, He proposed, he 
wrote in this letter, to treat first of the effects of 
American banking on manufactures and on labor 
and industry ; and, " secondly," he went on, " I 
will venture to suggest what appears to me to be 
a simple and effectual plan for restoring and pre- 
serving coin circulation without any bank at all, 
altogether separating State affairs from bank affairs 

216 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOEL 

and leaving each to its own orbit and operation." 
After treating the first subject, he went on, — 

"Secondly. — What, then, is the simple and effectual 
plan for restoring and preserving coin circulation, without 
any bank at all ; the remedy for state and national evils 
thus but faintly depictured ; which in the beginning of 
this letter, I promised to submit ? 

"The option is between state banks, a national bank, 
whether of discount or a treasury bank, and, (discarding 
all banks) by some other method. 

"Of state banks nothing more need be added to what 
has been the whole strain of this view. My very humble 
and private opinion has never been withheld during the 
use made of them since the removal of the public deposites 
from the bank of the United States, that state banks of 
discount and circulation never would answer the constitu- 
tional purposes of the federal government. I think they 
have altogether failed ; and shall consider them as out of 
the question. 

" I believe when the late Mr. Dallas proposed the bank 
of the United States in 1814-15, that Mr. Jefferson's pref- 
erence was for a Treasury bank ; and I never could see 
any objection to such a bank that does not apply to an 
incorporated discount bank of the United States. We 
have all seen the late bank defy and well nigh defeat the 
government : and arguing from what it did as an an- 
tagonist to what it might do as the instrument of an ill 
disposed Executive, I cannot understand how a treasury 
bank would be a more formidable presidential or party 
engine than such a bank as the late bank of the United 
States. But Mr. Madison and others of our wisest and 
best men having set the seal of their condemnation on a 

217 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Treasury bank, such an institution has been discredited, 
and it is not for me to attempt its establishment in public 
good will. . . . 

" The main part of such a plan, the basis of it, may be 
very simple and is perfectly feasible. It is but to create 
by act of congress so many commissioners or agents at 
such places as may be deemed necessary, empowered to 
receive, keep and pay the public funds. From twenty to 
thirty such commissioners at proper positions would per- 
form without difficulty all those duties, i. They could 
receive, 2. they could keep, and 3. they could pay, in 
gold and silver, or by equivalent credits, all the income and 
expenditures of government : and without any bank in- 
strumentality whatever. Congress should build them 
houses for safe keeping the money, and take from them 
adequate security for faithful conduct in their offices. 

"Thus together with the mints, a coin circulation would 
be established in the operations of government. Is the 
federal government bound to go further ? Has it consti- 
tutional authority to do more? Mr. Jefferson's opinion 
was, I believe, that the states should surrender to the 
United States the regulation of currency as well as the 
coinage of money ; and no more urgent time than the 
present could be found to make that surrender should it 
be deemed proper. 

" But, if not, and at any rate should it be thought ad- 
visable and constitutional for congress, as now empow- 
ered, to regulate domestic exchanges, the before men- 
tioned commissioners could do it without any difficulty, 
but such as inveterate habit and opposition might give 
rise to. These commissioners being authorised by act of 
Congress to give bills of exchange on all parts of the 
Union, on payment of the amount of such bills in gold or 

218 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

silver, (or unquestionable equivalent,) charging no more 
than the mere cost of trans])ortation from where the bill 
of exchange is given to where it would be payable, might 
thus furnish bills of exchange, having great advantages 
over mercantile or bank bills of exchange, viz : that being 
drawn on, and after actual deposit of the hard money, 
there would be no risque of damages, and could be no 
failure of payment. 

" Some such simple plan, it is with deference submitted, 
is possible and would succeed." 

Mr. Inj^ersoll was again nominated for Congress 
by the Democrats in the Third District at the 
recjular election in the fall of 1838, and had an- 
other spirited canvass with Mr. Naylor. The old 
accusations were brought out once more, and he 
was moreover accused in the Daily Advertiser of 
entertaining Jacobinical sentiments. He and his 
party maintained that he had in reality been 
elected at the special election in 1837, and had 
been defrauded by the device of fictitious names 
on the assessors' lists, and they feared the same 
practice would be carried out again, and in a 
speech in Spring Garden, on September 13, Mr. 
Ingersoll advocated the use of force at the coming 
election in certain contingencies as the only effec- 
tive means to prevent fraud and as conducive in 
the end to fair elections. This was the origin of 
the Advertiser's accusation. The result, on the face 

of the returns, was the election of Mr. Naylor by 

219 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

about seven hundred or eight hundred majority, 
but the Democrats maintained that gross frauds 
had been perpetrated against them, and on their 
motion the return judges threw out the whole 
returns from the Northern Liberties, and the result 
was then the election of Mr. Ingersoll. Kensing- 
ton and the unincorporated Northern Liberties 
were the districts in which he obtained his major- 
ity. 

There were two sets of returns this year as to 
the Philadelphia members of the Legislature also, 
and some contest, moreover, over the Governor- 
ship. Troops marched to Harrisburg, and party 
feeling ran very high. It was the time of what 
has been called the Buckshot War. Both Mr. 
Ingersoll and Mr. Naylor obtained certificates of 
election, and took part in the first steps of the 
preliminary organization of the House in Decem- 
ber, 1839. Mr. Ingersoll's name was alone on the 
clerk's roll, but during the contest over the New 
Jersey members (before organization and before 
Pennsylvania had been called) the Whigs managed 
to admit Mr. Naylor as the prima facie member, 
and Mr. Ingersoll thus found himself burdened 
with a contested election. He spent much time 
and trouble in the production of evidence before a 
committee, which finally reported against him by 
a single vote. A mass of testimony making a 
book of five hundred and forty pages was taken, 

220 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

but was, of course, not read by members. He 
was also heard in his own behalf before the House, 
and his contest was only finally disposed of near 
the end of the term, January 15, 1841, when the 
House resolved by a small majority that Mr. 
Naylor was entitled to the seat. 

Before this date, however, Mr. Ingersoll was a 
member-elect of the Twenty-Seventh Congress. 
He had been again nominated in the summer of 
1840, and Mr. Naylor against him. The Demo- 
crats had challenged the latter to stand and 
make the old fight over again, alleging that the 
result would show the truth of their charges of 
fraud, now that a new election law secured an 
inspector to both parties in every precinct ; but 
Mr. Naylor withdrew after a few weeks, — the 
Democrats alleged that he dared not face the con- 
test, now that the opportunity for fraud was so 
much reduced, — and Mr. Morton McMichael was 
nominated in his place. A new charge was made 
against Mr. Ingersoll in this campaign, that he 
had been guilty of " ordering a suit of clothes 
from Paris." This charge was made in the In- 
guirer, but a correspondent criticised the paper for 
making a charge of such a prying nature, and the 
Pennsylvania7i gravely explained that the suit had 
been ordered of an American tailor in Paris, who 
was travelling in this country at the time. The 
result of the campaign was Mr. Ingersoll's election 

221 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

by about thirteen hundred majority; and this is 
worthy of note upon the question of the alleged 
frauds, for the elections in general went over- 
whelmingly against the Democrats, and they even 
lost Pennsylvania. Many years later, after his re- 
tirement from pubhc affairs, Mr. IngersoU wrote, 
" The prevalent impression since with all parties 
has been that I was twice defrauded by false votes 
and returns," 

During the campaign Mr. IngersoU had ex- 
plained his position on the questions of slavery 
and abolition. Letters upon these subjects had 
been addressed to him by abolition societies during 
the special election in 1837, and he had been 
anxious to answer them at length, but had allowed 
himself to be dissuaded by his friends, and had 
finally replied that he would answer fully at any 
time when his opponent should do so. This 
ended the matter for that campaign, but the same 
questions were again asked in 1838, couched in 
most vague and general language, and he then of 
his own motion defined his position at length in 
public speeches. In 1840 he expressed his views 
in a public letter, after he had vainly endeavored 
to induce his questioners to be more specific. 
What these views were will appear more fully 
hereafter, but it may be said here in a few words 
that he stated in his answer that he disliked 

slavery, and thought it both disreputable and 

222 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

detrimental in a community like ours, but was 
strongly opposed to the abolition agitation ; that 
he was opposed to abolition by Congress in the 
District of Columbia; and that, though he re- 
spected the sincere abolitionist, he thought " the 
worst traitors to the United States are those who 
for factious purposes affect abolitionism." 



223 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. IngersoU in Congress — His District — On the Judiciary 
Committee, and Chairman of Foreign Affairs — His 
Course generally — The Slavery Question — How the 
Problem presented itself in those Days — The Abolition- 
ists were Disunionists — Mr. IngersoU' s Speech on the 
Twenty-First Rule — His Course on the Tariff — Tyler — 
The Sub-Treasury — General Jackson's Fine — Conflicts 
with Mr. Adams. 

It was the Twenty-Seventh Congress to which 
Mr. IngersoU was thus elected, and he was also 
elected successively to the Twenty-Eighth, Twenty- 
Ninth, and Thirtieth Congresses. He seems to have 
narrowly escaped defeat by the Native American 
candidate in 1844, but in the other elections he 
had no trouble. His district was originally the 
Third District, and comprised all of the county of 
Philadelphia except East and West Southwark, 
Moyamensing, Passyunk, Kingsessing, Blockley, 
Penn Township, Germantown, Roxborough, and 
Bristol. Under the apportionment of 1842,^^ its 
name was changed to the " Fourth," and it was 
made to consist of Kensington, North and South 

Penn, Roxborough, Germantown, Bristol, unincor- 

224 



CHARLJ'S JARKI) INGKRSOLL 

poratcd Northern Liberties, Oxford, Lower Dublin, 
Byberry and Moreland, Bleckley, West Philadel- 
phia, and Kingsessing. 

Though the evidence upon the subject is rather 
meagre, yet I do not think that Mr. IngersoU was, 
as a rule, actively concerned in the management of 
practical politics. He was occasionally active in 
questions of patronage, but my impression is that 
his time was far less taken up by these matters than 
was that of most public men. On one occasion, in 
the fall of 1837, I find that he was called home 
from Washington " to save the ticket," and wrote 
Mr. Gilpin as follows: 

" I find it [the ticket] in great danijer even in Philadel- 
phia County from selfish thirst of office, disunion and 
other causes of disaffection — Irish dissatisfied en masse in 
Southwark &; Moyamensing and so forth. It is really a 
harder undertaking than I anticipated, and sometimes I 
feel quite discouraged. Sutherland, Burden [?], Simpson, 
and dozens of others all pulling each his own way, and 
the only good prominent men estranged and out of 
humor. I am in town to-day to see what I can do, and 
had some resolutions passed — and unanimously — at the 
town and county conference yesterday which I hope may- 
serve as a rallying point. But really we are in trouble and 
jeopardy. If I can prevail on them to disregard all office 
hunting till after the election, not only disregard but dis- 
countenance it, and rally on the President's Message, 
that may at least postpone the crumbling to pieces which I 
fear is inevitable." 

15 22s 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

His ideas upon removals from office were given 
to Mr. Gilpin early in Mr. Van Buren's term and 
he came near to expressing the same view which 
has been expressed upon the general subject and 
particularly upon " offensive partisans" by a recent 
President. He wrote upon November 8, 1837,— 

.. Aware that what we call rotation may be less popular, 
perhaps odious, in regions to be attended to. and havmg 
myself strong feelings as well as an immovable opmion 
on the subject, I lay down principles viz : 

"I. The south and southwest are won— I trust so— and 
the centre musf be attended to a Uttle now. 

"2 Let the /aw remove, the Executive never but for 
cause. But when the 4 year law makes a vacancy, the Presi- 
dent should so consider it and ma/ce known that he will 

always do so. , 

.. 3 Every opponent in office should noj^ be removed. 

But every active, salient, opponent in office ought to be 

forthwith removed. Spare opinions, but not overt acts. 
"If this sometimes cuts back-handed, so much the 

better." 

He had been a supporter of Van Buren, and had 
been active in a reception tendered him in Phila- 
delphia in the end of March, 1841 ; but he evi- 
dently came to the conclusion that his renomina- 
tion would be unwise in 1844, and he and Mr. 
Rush and others tried without success to nominate 
Commodore Stewart. Mr. Adams says that Mr. 
In-ersoU told him this was a move against Bu- 



^ 226 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

chanan, and a letter of Mr. IngersoU's shows that 
the plan had been started, with his strong disap- 
proval, by some active politician as early as No- 
vember, 1837. He was mentioned by some friends 
as a candidate for the speakership in the Twenty- 
Eighth Congress, but was not among those voted 
for; and he was suggested for the Senate in 1845, 
when Mr. Buchanan went into the cabinet, but 
Simon Cameron was the successful candidate. 

During the eight years, from 1841 to 1849, in 
which he was in Congress, many points of the 
greatest importance were discussed and decided, — 
some of them finally, others to come up soon 
again. The Federal Treasury system, the banking 
system, Texas, the Mexican War, the growth of 
the anti-slavery agitation, and the disputes with 
England over the case of the Caroline, over Ore- 
gon, and over the Northeastern Boundary, presented 
an abundance of material for decision, in all of 
which he took a very active and leading part. In 
our system we have not any definitely chosen 
leader on the floor of the House, but Mr. IngersoU 
was undoubtedly among those recognized by tacit 
consent as leaders on his side. And this position 
he gained very early in his first session. 

Indeed, during the organization of the House, 
and within a few days after its meeting, he made 
one of the leading speeches on the subject of the 
Twenty First Rule ; and on all questions of most 

227 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

importance — the tariff, the fiscal bank, the ex- 
chequer, and all the financial questions of the day 
— he took an active part in the debates and had 
the members' close attention. His speeches usu- 
ally bear the marks of careful preparation, and 
contain historical and other information,* which 
can have been gathered only by a good deal of 
labor. Some of them were biting in sarcasm, and 
occasionally they were full of a humor which threw 
the members into convulsions of laughter. He was 
strongly opposed to the limitations upon debate, 
which were enforced with great stringency in the 
Twenty-Seventh Congress, and at the close of the 
first session addressed a letter to his constituents, 
in which he reviewed this " unconstitutional sup- 
pression of freedom of speech" and the other 
striking events of the session, which he called " the 
revolution of the hundred days." The awful con- 
trast between the promises of the Whigs and their 
almost ludicrous failure upon the death of Gen- 
eral Harrison was set forth in sharp contrast in 
this letter, which received attention far and wide 
over the country, was reprinted from the Globe into 
other papers, and was caustically reviewed ■'^ in the 
National Intelligencer. 

* See, e.g., his speech on the Fiscal Bank Bill on August 
5, 1 84 1 {Congressional Globe, Twenty Seventh Congress, 
first session, pp. 401-410), containing in an appendix a most 
elaborate history of American money. 

228 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Mr. Ingersoll was originally assigned to the 
Judiciary Committee, of which he had been chair- 
man in 1813-15 ; but his name was put near the 
foot. He complained on the floor of " being thus 
thrust down to the tail of the committee ;" but in 
the very next Congress (the Twenty-Eighth), in 
which the Democrats held a clear majority, he was 
given the very important position of chairman of 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and he was con- 
tinued in the same position in the Twenty-Ninth 
Congress. In the Thirtieth Congress the Whigs 
appointed him on the same committee, but of course 
did not give him the chairmanship. He was, I 
think, usually a strong party man, but occasionally 
introduced measures which were exclusively his 
own. 

Proud of his country, inspired with no small 
idea of our imperial greatness, and somewhat as- 
sertive of a bold and rigidly exclusive American 
policy, he thought it best to widen our limits in 
certain directions, — and what would the country be 
to-day without those regions ? — and he strongly 
advocated the annexation of Texas, faced war with 
Mexico without hesitation, and thought we should 
have been vastly more firm in asserting our rights 
against England. He had, moreover, grown up 
during the very early days of the Union, and knew 
from the lips of the generation which preceded him 
that the Union might well have never existed ; he 

229 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

had heard from them all the compromises and 
agreements which alone had led to its formation ; 
and these agreements he was in favor of maintain- 
ing as an integral part of the Union itself. His life 
ran far back into a period of history which is now 
nearly forgotten, and he had himself as a student 
at Princeton seen farms in New Jersey tilled by 
negro slaves/' Impressions made so early are 
rarely eradicated. 

What was his private opinion on the subject of 
slavery, which was then beginning to throw our 
whole public life into turmoil, will be seen later, 
but he knew its history in our country: he knew 
that the Union would have been absolutely im- 
possible without the compromises and agreements 
upon the subject contained in the constitution, 
and he was in favor of preserving and executing 
those agreements. He knew, moreover, that the 
agitation upon the subject of slavery, which was 
made by enthusiastic abolitionists and was soon 
used by politicians for political ends, had a direct 
tendency to break up the Union and thus involve 
the country in unspeakable and incalculable woes, 
and he did his part on the lines followed by the 
vast majority of our leading men to stop and allay 
this turmoil and to save the country from the peril 
of disunion. It is easy for writers to-day, thirty 
years after the event, to concoct elaborate treatises 

upon the certain result of the war of 1861-65, and 

230 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

to prove to their satisfaction and that of some of 
their readers that the war was always bound to 
succeed, and that from the beginning of the seces- 
sion movement the Union was absolutely certain 
to be preserved. But hindsight is very different 
from foresight. To the man who lived fifty and 
more years ago and had to act upon foresight, — 
to the statesman knowing the grave risks of radi- 
cal change and confronted with an agitation which 
was morally certain to result in an effort to disrupt 
the Union, surely the true course was to try to 
allay the disturbance. 

That the intense agitation of the subject during 
the thirty or forty years preceding the war — and 
there never was a set of men who knew better how 
to agitate and ever to keep agitating than the abo- 
litionists and the politicians who took up their 
cries — had had the direct result of intensifying and 
soHdifying the pro-slavery sentiment of the South 
cannot be doubted; and the country was rapidly 
separating into two hostile camps, North and 
South. Mr. Madison, a short time before his 
death, had said s° to Mr. Ingersoll that in his opin- 
ion " the worst effect of the abolition excitement 
would be to lead the minds of Southern men from 
looking upon slavery as a necessary evil, to look- 
ing upon it as one of the greatest blessings" they 
could enjoy. 

To say, as is and was so often said, that the 

231 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Northern agitators desired only to stop the spread 
of slavery, and had no intention of interfering with 
it in the States where it existed, is to be either very 
unfair or very blind. For it was plain beyond per- 
adventure that the agitation which had so grown 
already would not cease to grow and to augment 
its demands ; that if it succeeded in placing the 
slave States in a dwindling minority it would soon 
make further claims, and the minority would be- 
fore long find itself still further pressed. The agi- 
tation, even during its few years, grew with tremen- 
dous strides, and, instead of stopping at a mere 
effort to prevent the spread of slavery in the Terri- 
tories, it demanded in a loud voice abolition in the 
District of Columbia, — where the Southerner had 
to come as well as the Northerner; it demanded 
that the system of slave representation, one of the 
leading compromises of the constitution, should be 
abolished ; it not only refused to carry out, but 
openly legislated by " Personal Liberty Laws" 
against, the return of slaves under another of the 
compromises of the constitution, — which had been 
entered into by the fathers as an integral part of 
the Union; and public feeling in some States came 
in time to banish to a private career the public 
man who had any part in executing the law. 

As to the Southerner, who grew up from infancy 
with slavery around him and knew how impossi- 
ble it was to abolish the system without radical 

232 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and revolutionary change, can we wonder that he 
insisted, as a mere matter of self-preservation, 
upon the right to settle with his slaves in the 
Territories, which were his patrimony as much as 
that of the North, and that he tried in other ways 
to widen his domain, and later came to threaten 
and think seriously of disunion ? And to the 
Northern statesman, who had not taken up the 
anti-slavery cry for political profit, the agitation 
of the abolitionists seemed a great evil, and he, of 
course, united with the South in a laudable effort 
to quiet the disturbance and to preserve and 
enforce the constitution in all its clauses. The 
enthusiastic moralist, who convinces himself that 
slavery, or property in land, or all private property, 
or primogeniture, or aristocracy, is a moral canker, 
to touch which is to be polluted, is entitled to a 
high degree of respect and often of admiration, 
but he is not a statesman ; and the statesman, 
having the lives and happiness of millions depen- 
dent to some extent upon him, will rather seek 
the greatest good of the greatest number, even 
though wrong be done to some, than turn the 
whole system upside down and plunge his coun- 
try into revolution and war. Wrong, grievous 
wrong, exists in the world to-day, and always has 
existed, and man sees too short a distance ahead to 
enter rashly upon revolutionary change until the 
evils endured have grown well-nigh intolerable. 

2J3 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

But to the public man the course to pursue was 
more clearly indicated in this case than in most 
others, for the abolition movement was distinctly- 
coupled with a movement for disunion ; its leaders 
almost to a man openly detested and reviled 
the constitution, were fairly ribald upon it, in- 
voked curses upon it, and prayed and hoped 
for the dissolution and disruption of the Union 
by any means and at any cost. Even the ven- 
erable John Quincy Adams, who had been a 
statesman of wide repute so long and who was 
so mild as on occasions to incur the disapproval 
of the abolitionists, proclaimed in the House in 
1844 that "he believed in his soul, if it [the pro- 
posed amendment abolishing slave representation] 
was not made before long, this Union would 
tumble into pieces ;" and he several times intro- 
duced into the House petitions for the dissolution 
of the Union, coming from abolition sources. 

William Lloyd Garrison called the constitution 
an " agreement with death and a covenant with 
hell." James Wilson stated that he would rather 
dissolve the Union or the universe than extend 
slavery, and Horace Mann and Samuel May con- 
curred with him. Henry Wilson wanted openly 
to nullify the constitution as to an escaped Texan 
slave, and was ready to act in favor of emancipa- 
tion with any party or any set of men. Wendell 
Phillips invoked his curse upon the constitution 

234 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

because of slavery, and thought no aboh'tionist 
could consistently demand less than its dissolu- 
tion. A proposed professor was rejected at Har- 
vard because he had as commissioner returned a 
slave. The Massachusetts Legislature addressed 
the governor to remove a judge for enforcing the 
fugitive slave law, and its execution was opposed 
vi ct arniis by the best citizens, and agents under 
the law were advised to leave Boston while unmo- 
lested, Massachusetts and some other States 
made it penal for their officers to execute the fugi- 
tive slave law of 1793, and a Boston meeting pub- 
licly resolved in 1850 that they would not permit 
the execution of the fugitive slave law by the United 
States authorities, speakers even predicting that if 
the United States marshal were killed in the effort 
no jury would convict his murderer. The Amer- 
ican Anti-Slavery Society and the New England 
Anti-Slavery Society — the latter by a nearly unani- 
mous vote — declared against the Union in 1844, 
and at least two State societies were openly in 
favor of its dissolution in 1850. Henry Wilson 
tells us that there was a class of abolitionists who 
agreed with Garrison's above-quoted opinion, and 
he has produced ample evidence of their general 
hatred of the Union and desire to dissolve it.s' 

These numerous instances cannot be brushed 
aside by saying that they were sporadic ; they 
were undoubtedly typical. That the original abo- 

235 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

litionists were guided by the impulse of their 
hearts may be freely admitted, but it ought to be 
equally admitted to-day in the arena of history 
that a vast deal of the noise and agitation of the 
subject was due to the wiles of politicians, who 
scented an issue that might lead them into office 
and then made the most of it. That such was the 
case was s^ asserted by Webster and admitted by 
Raymond, and, though not emphasized by our 
historians generally, is certainly a fact. 

I have gone into these matters of history at 
some length, because they are vital to an under- 
standing of Mr. Ingersoll's course upon many 
subjects. Such persistent efforts have been made 
to write down the statesmen of his day who 
thought as he did that it is doubtful whether it is 
possible to-day even to secure the ear of many 
readers. But I submit that in his time and for 
many years the anti-slavery movement was dis- 
tinctly and avowedly united with a movement for 
the dissolution of the Union, and that in the light 
of this historical fact it is absolutely false to teach, 
as von Hoist and Schouler and our historians of 
that period generally do, that the men who op- 
posed the abolition sentiment and in the main 
supported the South were wrong, blind, and 
wicked. Schouler does write " in one place that 
" time should deal very gently with the loyal con- 
servatism, North and South, which deprecated all 

236 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

agitation on this tender subject" [slavery] ; but it 
is a sad blot on his often admirable history that, 
whenever he himself approaches the subject of 
slavery or the South, he drops * the historian and 
becomes a mere rabid partisan ; while von Hoist 
concocts many pages of what he miscalls a " con- 
stitutional and political history" largely of the 
political clap-trap and absurd campaign nicknames 
of one side. The German author seems to have 
no comprehension that there is anything in our 
history but the overthrow of what he calls the 
" slavocracy," and must clearly have taken up his 
pen with a fixed plan of writing down all our pub- 
lic men who did not join in the abolition cry. 
Such works arc not history, and the man of that 
time who sided with Clay and Webster and the 
great host with them, in favor of the Union and 
against the incessant agitation which imperilled it, 
will certainly rank higher in American history — 
should a real history ever be written — as a states- 
man and patriot than will those who were forever 
throwing fuel on the fire controlled by the men 
who loathed the Union and proclaimed their fixed 
determination to destroy it. 

It has already been said that, within a few days 

* What does this writer mean when he speaks (History, 
iv. 56) of the Southern delegates to the Free Trade Con- 
vention of 1 83 1 as "Arabs'* ? 

237 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of the first meeting of the Twenty-Seventh Con- 
gress in extra session, Mr. IngersoU made a lead- 
ing speech upon the subject of the famous Twenty- 
First Rule (the rule to prevent the reception of 
abolition petitions) ; he had moved to reconsider 
the vote by which the House had agreed to Mr. 
Adams's amendment to strike out that rule ; and 
in his speech upon the subject he pointed out to 
the Southerners that the true course was to modify 
the rule so as to take from their opponents the 
grounds for calling it a " gag-rule" and a violation 
of the right of petition. On the latter point he 
further argued that the right of petition is not an 
American but an English right, and that here the 
people have the far more extended right of instruc- 
tion. After referring to the constant agitation of 
the subject from England, and their absolute gov- 
ernment of " eight millions of oppressed Irish, of 
one hundred million enslaved East Indians," he 
called upon Mr. Wise, after proper Congressional 
action, to get the President to instruct our minister 
in Great Britain " to retaliate this insulting inter- 
ference." 

" Let it be represented," he said, "in the blandest terms 
of diplomatic intercourse which humanity requires and 
good policy enjoins, that the Irish people should be allowed 
a Legislature of their own for their local affairs ; that our 
own experience proves that a great central Legislature for 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

remote municipalities is not less injurious to them than to 
the metropolitan state. Let them be told that the interest 
they express for the emancipation of our slaves, we heartily 
reciprocate for theirs. Put a stop, in short, sir, to the im- 
pertinent intermeddling of the English Government and 
English individuals with our established institutions by 
similar remonstrances against such of theirs as are much 
more obnoxious to complaint, and my life upon it in a very 
short time Abolition will be much less agitated than it is. 
The source of it is in England, the streams are but tribu- 
tary which flow through parts of this country. Let me say 
to the torrid South, that with all its animation, it has never 
repelled with sufficient vigor this foreign invasion of its 
rights, and traduction of its character. In the central 
States, I believe we are almost all nearly of one mind re- 
specting slavery as an evil and slavery as a right. The 
gentleman from Massachusetts spoke of the Pennsylvania 
act of Assembly, which led the way to Abolition, as an 
event of thirty or forty years ago. Sir, it is sixty years 
since that statute was enacted for the gradual abolition of 
slavery within the State. Even then, before a Federal 
Constitution had imposed its obligations, none of the wise 
and benevolent originators of that act thought of iiinac- 
rt^iVz/t' emancipation evtnwithin their own State, or of inter- 
fering with slavery at all in any other. It was reserved for 
modern subserviency to British propagandism, to denounce 
bondage, and attempt to put an end to it extra-tcrritorially. 
The people of the South may rely upon it, that those of 
Pennsylvania, and, I believe, of all the free States, are 
still as averse as ever to such injustice. There is little or 
no difference of sentiment upon the subject. We con- 
sider it an evil which we are happy to be rid of but we are 
unwilling to judge for those of other States, who may or 

239 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

may not think as we do, and with whose institutions we 
have no right to interfere, directly or indirectly, either by 
agitation or by law ; whom, on the contrary, we are bound 
to maintain in all their federal rights, and to let alone in 
all their State rights. I repeat, then, that the policy and 
the duty of the South, instead of the futile expressions of 
lofty indignation, is to vindicate themselves by uniting with 
the North, to repel foreign disparagement, to rouse the en- 
thusiasm of patriotism, to repel that of fanaticism, and 
thus to put an end to its aggressions. For my own part, I 
do not hesitate to call myself an Abolitionist, in the sense 
of Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison, and Marshall. 
In that sentiment, the people of my State, and I believe 
nearly all those of the Middle States — the great central 
zone which binds this Union together — are well nigh unani- 
mous, and altogether resolved, without distinction of party, 
ready, by all lawful means, to put down those who propa- 
gate and foment the dismemberment of the Union and dis- 
grace of the American national character. . . . 

"The venerable member from Massachusetts talks of an 
insurrection of the slaves and servile war, with an argu- 
mentative composure which I cannot conceive of. Sir, I 
was astonished, and I must say my blood curdled with 
horror, when I heard a gentleman of his high and influen- 
tial position, whose sentiments must make a deep impres- 
sion, not only throughout this country, but abroad ; a past 
President of the United States, declare on this floor — let me 
be corrected if I misunderstood him — that in the event of 
a servile war, the Constitudon of the United States would 
authorize the catastrophe of the universal emancipation of 
all the slaves of the eleven slave States of this Union by 
means of the treaty-making power. 

" Mr. Adams here rose in explanation, and said he did 

240 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

not say that, in the event of a servile war or insurrection, 
the Constitution of the United States would be at an end. 
What he did say was this ; that in the event of a servile 
war or insurrection of slaves, if the people of the free 
States were called upon to suppress the insurrection, and 
to spend their blood and treasure in putting an end to the 
war — a war in which the distinguished Virginian, the author 
of the Declaration of Independence had said that "God 
has no attribute in favor of the master" — then he would 
not say that Congress might not interfere with the institu- 
tion of slavery in the States, and that, through the inaiy- 
inaking poiuc7', universal emancipation might not be the 
result. And he would say, further, that, if this twenty- 
first rule is reinstated, the people of the North will be ipso 
facto absolved from all obligations under the Constitution. 
" Mr. Ingersoll resumed. This is no time, Mr. 
Speaker, to deal with constitutional doctrine, so easily re- 
futable. Yet I cannot refrain from remarking that the 
honorable gentleman from Massachusetts attributes to the 
Executive branch of this Government a prepotency hitherto 
unheard of. It was he who formerly, I think, denied that 
by the treaty-making power, Louisiana, with all its offspring 
of States, could be incorporated with this Union. And it 
is he who now assigns to the treaty-making power the for- 
midable and destructive faculty of sundering the Union, 
and desolating one third of it in frightful extermination, by 
refusal, as uncharitable as it would be unconstitutional, to 
suppress an insurrection of the slaves. All Southern ab- 
stractions may hide their diminished heads before this 
prodigious and portentous distraction of that most experi- 
enced and distinguished statesman. Speaking also, as I 
always do, with reverence for the purity of his motives, 
and the elevation of his character, I must add that Caro- 
16 241 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

lina nullification is insignificant contrasted with the tran- 
scendental abruption of his Northern divergence, which, 
ipso facto, dissolved the whole North from all Federal alle- 
giance by force of a mere rule for ordering the business of 
this House. . . . 

"What is an American Abolitionist, I have never been 
able distinctly to understand. Denunciation, declamation, 
passionate, unmerciful and unmerited abuse of Southern 
institutions, reviling slavery as a sin, and the slave trade 
as piracy, are neither arguments nor reasons. I want to 
know what it is distinctly that is proposed to be done for 
the removal of the alleged grievance. It appears to me 
that there are three classes united in this conspiracy, who 
may be characterized as — ist ; mere enthusiasts or zealots, 
who do not pretend to reason, but merely declaim, de- 
nounce, and vilify. 2d ; rational Abolitionists, such as 
those by whom I am desired to present the petition to this 
House which I now hold in my hand, asking for an altera- 
tion of the Constitution of the United States to exclude 
eleven of them from the Union. And 3d ; partisans, to 
whom Abolition is a cloak or disguise by which to impose 
A or B as a President or member of Congress upon the 
community, or to prevent their elections, as being favor- 
able or inimical to the abolition of slavery. Of these, the 
first category are to be treated with the tenderness due to 
sincere anxiety. Ever since the crusades there have been 
and will continue to be, propagandists and missionaries 
riding their hobbies in one direction or another, either this 
way or that, who cannot be controlled while they violate 
no laws, like such as seek any other species of recreation 
or excitement. 

"The second category, the rational but impracticable 
Abolitionists, those who seek to dismember this Union by 

242 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

a change of the Constitution, which never can be accom- 
plished, must be controlled. The law must be enforced 
against them. They are not to be allowed to confound a 
supposed right of petition with the abuse of Abolition, or 
otherwise to disturb the constitutional repose of this Union 
and the undeniable right of each State to adopt, refuse, 
and otherwise regulate slavery, as its citizens may think 
proper. The third class — I declare here what I stated in 
another public assembly — the Convention of Pennsylvania 
— partisan Abolitionists, are among the most reprehensible 
traitors to this country ; who, though they cannot be pun- 
ished in the regular administration of penal justice, ought 
to be denounced to universal reprobation. Without an im- 
practicable organic change, to what practical or possible 
end can their movements lead ? Cui boito ? What can 
they come to ? What must they end in ? It is universally 
agreed that slavery is not of Congressional jurisdiction, 
except in this District. There seems to be no denial of 
the established doctrine that any State may use it that 
thinks proper to do so. . . . 

" And what are its [Abolition's] inhuman influences on 
bondage ? Some years ago, as I understood the gentle- 
man from Massachusetts, a resolution actually passed this 
House to abolish slavery in the District, Now, he owns, 
even he cannot vote for it. He does not believe it would 
get more than very few votes in this House. It is too 
soon for emancipation. Wherefore, but because it has 
been clamored out of favor by ungenerous denunciation 
of the cowardice of the South, made cowards by con- 
science, which stings the Southern heart with apprehen- 
sion that in a conflict between master and slave there 
is no attribute of the Deity to incline him to the master? 
Such is the philosophy of this agitation. In Maryland, 

243 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Virginia, and Kentucky, slavery was waning, receding, 
declining. If the curse it is said to be, the argument is 
irresistible that spontaneity would remove it sooner than 
coercion — legitimate, gradual, beneficent emancipation, 
not the placard, the torch, the rifle, and the gallows. But 
Great Britain, by violence, having increased the foreign 
slave trade, as is every successive President's information 
to Congress, and fearfully aggravated its vast horrors, 
English and Americans, in deplorable and inhuman com- 
bination, are engaged by untimely agitation in disquieting 
the slaves, abusing and endangering their masters, and 
depreciating the property of large, moral, tranquil, and 
prosperous portions of our country. They procrastinate, 
they prevent Abolition. They add rivets to every chain. 
They drive the iron deeper into every soul in bondage. 
They preach and teach hopeless revolt and suicidal insur- 
rection. They expose several millions of unoffending 
whites to the reckless butchery of some millions of infuri- 
ated blacks. They provoke dreadful reactions. They 
foment deadly animosities. They breed incurable calami- 
ties, by perversion, ay, profanation of humanity ! As char- 
ity, the benignest offspring of our blessed religion, is the 
cement of individual well being, so is comity the bond of 
nations, and compromise the only tie of this confederation 
— of all legislation. Not an act of Congress becomes 
such, without large infusions of compromise. But Aboli- 
tion spurns all — charity, comity, compromise. Constitu- 
tion, law, order, religion, peace — it tramples down all 
with an iron hoof of unmerciful fanaticism. I visited Mr. 
Madison a few weeks before his serene and philosophical 
death. He was extremely feeble, unable to sit up. But 
he raised his almost exanimate body from the couch, 
when speaking to me of modern Abolition ; he said that, 

244 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

to it alone, we owe not only the lamentable arrest of 
onward emancipation ; but, till it intruded, no Governor 
in Carolina extolled slavery as a happy balance of her 
Government, no Virginia professor vindicated its moral 
advantages. . . . 

" Respecting the third question which I premised, that 
of regulation, I must confess that I do not like the 2ist 
rule, because it is both too comprehensive and too strin- 
gent. We are not now called upon to repeal, but to 
renew it ; and if I might judge for myself or those I repre- 
sent, I would prefer seeing it at least modified. I am 
unable to judge of the effects which its abandonment now, 
after being in operation some years, might have on the 
slave-holding States. It may look like yielding to what 
they deem ungenerous agitation, and unconstitutional ag- 
gression, and so prove injurious to their cause. But I 
cannot help thinking, that if there were no hindrance to 
petitions on this subject. Abolition, would soon e.xpire by 
spontaneous combustion. . . . 

"Yet, I would like to see this rule so pruned of some 
unnecessary phraseology, and, moreover, so modified in 
principle, as to render it strictly and unexceptionably con- 
formable to the real, constitutional position, proper to be 
occupied by those on this floor who think as I do on the 
subject. Whatever may be said, sir, of the fiscal and 
economical necessities of the country, this, after all, is the 
greatest of topics. This is the question of by far the most 
pervading, the most enduring, the most vital importance. 
It is the topic of the world, the question of the age. Par- 
liament and Congress are both engaged upon it. English 
as well as American elections turn upon it. I feel anx- 
ious, I confess, very anxious, so to vote upon it as to be 
exactly right, to yield no principle of conscience to the 

245 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

pressure of any kind of expediency, but to maintain the 
Constitution we have all sworn to support, in its very 
letter, its very spirit and true construction. "S4 

This speech was made in the midst of the most 
incessant interruptions, by calls to order upon the 
charge that he was wandering from the subject, so 
much bad feeling was there upon the question. Mr. 
Ineersoll's motion to reconsider was defeated, but 
a slightly different one prevailed, and the Twenty- 
First Rule, still in the same form, was continued as a 
part of the rules of the Twenty-Seventh House. It 
was finally repealed only at the last session of the 
Twenty-Eighth Congress, and thus there was re- 
moved a very striking instance of the folly of 
power. It had served little purpose but to give 
the abolitionists and professional agitators an op- 
portunity they were not slow to make the most 
of, and after its repeal the same practical result was 
reached of smothering the abolition petitions. 

Upon the tariff Mr. Ingersoll's course in Con- 
gress was the same as that he had followed for 
many years. He voted against the tariff of 1846, 
and had voted and spoken in favor of the higher 
Act of 1842. His main speech was upon the bill 
which passed the House in July, 1842, and was 
vetoed, and he then proposed a bill which omitted 
the land distribution clause objected to by Mr. Tyler, 
and fixed the rates in the main at the same figures 

246 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

as had prevailed, under the Compromise Act, 
during the year 1839. His proposal, however, 
failed ; and the bill introduced by Mr. Fillmore 
from the Ways and Means Committee passed with 
his approval. His wish was to attain stability and 
certainty in the tariff, and he thought the compro- 
mise of 1833 had been very beneficial in this re- 
spect. He greatly disliked the sudden growth of 
vast fortunes under the tariff, and said in 1842 of 
the Act of 182S,— 

"I confess its extravagance. It was too stimulant — 
over-bountiful. When an honorable gentleman from Con- 
necticut tells us that all the streams of that State have been 
covered with manufacturing villages by acts of Congress : 
when we hear of enormous fortunes acquired in a short 
time at Lowell by incorporated labor, — we are informed, I 
think, of manufacturing excesses which do not deserve 
commendation or encouragement. Congress should plant 
no hot-beds of manufactures. . . . There must be severe 
competition, or there will be no durable success." 55 

It was upon the veto of the earlier tariff bill that 
the exasperated Whigs, on the motion of Mr. 
Adams, appointed a special committee to consider 
the subject of the executive vetoes. Mr. Ingersoll 
was upon this committee, and drew up one of the 
minority reports defending Mr. Tyler. His per- 
sonal relations with that " President without a 
party" seem to have been pleasant, but their rcla- 

247 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

tions were no closer than this, and he repeatedly 
opposed his policy and even his pet schemes. The 
repeated vetoes, which so utterly broke up the 
Whigs, were of course welcome to him, as they 
advanced the policy he favored ; but he by no 
means fell into the egregious error of becoming a 
Tyler man. When charged by Mr. Raynor with 
being one of a procession of Democratic members 
who had marched to the President's and had 
there given the sentiment of " veto and ditto," he 
was able immediately to deny the charge. And 
on the subject of Mr. Tyler's exchequer system — 
a measure most strongly urged by the Executive — 
he made the last speech against it, and the reports 
of the day record that " all the members crowded 
up to hear him, and the House was as still as 
death," In this speech he said, — 

"But I cannot yield to this measure, which has been 
pressed, and so undu/y pressed upon us by the President ! 
From all that I can see, hear, read, and learn, the Presi- 
dent seems to have made the passage of this Exchequer a 
strong and favorite object. Sir, with all the respect and 
gratitude that I feel for that distinguished man, that fact, 
sir, would be an additional reason for me to vote against 
it. But to return to the act of '89, sir; are gentlemen 
aware that that act not only creates an Independent Treas- 
ury, but an Independent Secretary of the Treasury ? — one 
who is not obligated to make his reports to the President, 
but must report to this House. And this House can at all 
times, by resolution, call that Secretary to the bar of the 

248 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

House — not being under the necessity of writing to him for 
any information it may want, and receiving written an- 
swers ; but the House has the power of placing that 
Secretary of the Treasury there at the bar, and then 
and there to question him to the fullest extent as to the 
state of the finances, the public treasury, and every matter 
within the scope of his duties. A peculiar power, this, 
and showing what was the design of the wise and prudent 
framers of that act. That act of '89 has not been altered 
since— it still stands on the Statute Book, and there it will 
stand until something better shall take its place, "s^ 

Mr. Ingcrsoll was opposed to complicated rules 
of procedure for the House, and always glad of 
the opportunity to curtail them ; and, I suppose, 
was not a skilful parliamentarian. He favored a 
high standard of efficiency in the public depart- 
ments, but was evidently much impressed with the 
rapid growth of uncalled-for expenses in every 
branch. The expenses in the halls of Congress 
themselves was a matter to which he directed his 
animadversion, and the rapidly augmented judicial 
expenses also he endeavored to reduce. The same 
was also the case to some extent as to the navy, 
though here especially he favored a high degree 
of efficiency. To our system of foreign missions 
and consulships he devoted a good deal of atten- 
tion, and at several periods introduced bills to re- 
duce their number. His opinion was that we do 
not need missions except at the more important 

249 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

places, and he thought that the principal purpose 
they should serve, except at the great capitals, was 
as commercial agents to extend our foreign com- 
merce. 

When the Sub-Treasury was re-enacted at the 
first session of Congress during Mr. Polk's term, 
Mr. IngersoU of course supported it earnestly, 
and said he thought it of far more permanent im- 
portance than even Oregon or the tariff. It has 
been seen that he was one of the first to advocate 
the measure, and, indeed, one of its originators. 
The re-enactment of this great device practically 
removed from public discussion for many years 
the subjects of banks and the currency, which had 
for so long nearly driven the country distracted. 

The refunding of General Jackson's fine was an- 
other matter in which he took an active interest. 
Petitions for the passage of an act for that pur- 
pose were early introduced into the Twenty- 
Seventh Congress, and he presented a minority 
report from the Judiciary Committee in its favor, 
but the measure failed. In the end of June, 1842, 
Mr. Polk called on him with papers on the subject 
sent by General Jackson to Mr. Kendall ; and Mr. 
IngersoU in July of the next year published an 
elaborate pamphlet upon the subject. I presume 
from these facts that this pamphlet is to be con- 
sidered as presenting with authority General Jack- 
son's side of the question. In the preface to the 

2sO 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

pamphlet its author writes that members had 
several times objected that his minority report 
from the committee had presented " rather the 
poetry than argument of the case," and that he 
published the pamphlet to meet this objection. A 
new bill for the purpose was introduced by him 
early in the Twenty-Eighth Congress and became 
a law. 

One other point which should be mentioned is a 
series of desperate conflicts of debate between him 
and Mr. Adams, which ran through more than one 
Congress, and which (I have been told) were fol- 
lowed with close interest by the public. Mr. In- 
sersoll said in the House that he had been repeat- 
edly warned by an anonymous writer, who signed 
himself" Lynch," to desist from these battles, but 
they went on during at least two Congresses. In 
earlier life the two men had been friends ; but as 
the separation of parties grew, and as the North 
and the South drew themselves up almost in battle 
array, under the impulse of the anti-slavery agita- 
tion, Mr. IngersoU tended to one side while Mr. 
Adams tended to the other and became a leader 
of the agitators. Mr. IngersoU, moreover, felt 
that in this bitter fight, which was fast consuming 
the very vitals of Union, it was specially the func- 
tion of men from the great central States to act as 
arbiters between the warring sections. 

Indeed, this was one of the cardinal points of 

251 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

his political belief, and he repeatedly urged to 
the day of his death the vast importance of this 
function of " the temperate zone of American re- 
publican continental union." Not only on the 
question of slavery, but on the tariff and other 
subjects, he held this highly statesmanlike view, 
and repeatedly tried so to mould public opinion in 
the Middle States as to compose the contest be- 
tween " the slave-holding Southwest and the slave- 
hating Northeast." The bitter and jealous nature 
of Mr. Adams led him to hate Mr. IngersoU for 
this effort to quiet and compose a contest which 
Mr. Adams was among the most active in foment- 
ing, and desperate disputes frequently arose be- 
tween them. These evidently left their sting with 
Mr. Adams, and many pages of his diary are dis- 
figured by the secret outpouring of his venom 
upon Mr. IngersoU. This was, however, one of 
the ways in which that diarist exercised his talents 
upon probably every contemporary of the least 
prominence who differed with him. Mr. Inger- 
soll's attacks were all open to the world, and upon 
the death of Mr. Adams he introduced a bill at 
an early day, and evidently of his own motion, to 
give to Mrs. Adams the franking privilege, which 
had been conferred upon Mrs. Madison. The 
privilege is not so valuable, but coming, as it did, 
from a very strong opponent, was a distinguished 

mark of respect to Mr. Adams's long services, and 

252 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

was appreciated as such by Mrs. Adams, who 
wrote to acknowledge "with grateful sensibility 
the inestimable privilege bestowed by Congress 
procured for her through the kind exertions of 
Mr. C. J. IngersoU." 

In the Twenty-Seventh Congress, Mr. IngersoU 
introduced a bill from the Judiciary Committee to 
abolish public executions, and was active in se- 
curing the passage of a bill to rearrange the judi- 
cial circuits, much to the relief of the judges. He 
also introduced into the next Congress a bill on 
the subject of copyright, and had it referred to a 
special committee, but it seems never to have been 
reported on. 



253 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Texas — Settlement from United States — In Fact indepen- 
dent of Mexico as early as 1823 — Anxiety to be admitted 
into the Union — Mr. IngersoU's Connection with Annex- 
ation as Chairman of Foreign Affairs — Extracts from his 
Diary — Oregon — His Committee again against him — 
Opinion of Polk and Buchanan — Disputes with Eng- 
land, and Mr. Webster's Course — Case of the Caroline 
— Mr. IngersoU's Criticism of Webster's Course in — 
Mr. Webster's Scandalous Reply in the Senate— Mr. 
IngersoU's Charges of Dishonesty against Mr. Webster 
— Proceedings in the House — The Committee controlled 
in Mr. Webster's Interest — Minority Report — Public 
Dinner tendered Mr. Ingersoll — Re-elected to Congress 
by an Increased Plurality — Nominated for the French 
Mission — Defeated in the Senate — Retirement from 
Pubhc Life. 

It is not to be doubted that the Mexican War 
was a war of aggression and was waged in the in- 
terest of the southern section of the Union. The 
South wanted a region to settle with Southerners 
owning slaves, in order to give a counterweight to 
the rapidly growing power of the North, and the 
annexation of Texas and the Mexican War were 
the consequences. Therefore, much of the adverse 
criticism of these events is justified; but there is 

254 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

much palliation, if we compare the case with that 
of other powerful peoples bordering on weaker 
ones. In almost all history the result of such in- 
stances has been the same in the end, but our case 
exhibits a self-retention on the part of the power- 
ful country which has rarely been equalled. 

At the time of the annexation, early in 1845, not 
only was Texas s? independent and so recognized 
by all the great countries, but she had been inde- 
pendent for at least nine years. Indeed, as early 
as 1830 the Mexican authorities were unable to 
enforce their laws there, and von Hoist writes that 
from 1823 she had become a colony of the United 
States slaveholding interest. The settlement was, 
however, in part from the North, and had begun 
in.1819. But the fact to be emphasized is that 
she was settled and controlled by a people closely 
related to us in every way, and had since 1836 
been imploring admission into the Union. 

Mexico, it is quite true, denied her independence, 
and even asserted that she would look upon annexa- 
tion by us as an act of war, but she certainly had 
no right to assume this position, and her claim of 
sovereignty was based on the merest paper title. 
Of the^'extreme value of the territory concerned 
to the United States two opinions cannot be enter- 
tained, and from the time of Mr. Monroe many 
efforts had been made on our behalf to obtam the 
Rio Grande as a boundary. Texas claimed to ex- 

255 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

tend to that river, while Mexico maintained that 
the territory between the Rio Grande and the 
Nueces belonged still to her as the mother-country ; 
the truth seems to be that neither power exercised 
any real control over this sparsely settled, infertile 
region, which became the scene and ostensible 
cause of the outbreak of hostilities. Mr. Polk, 
having agreed with the Texans to defend them in 
case of annexation, at once assumed the validity of 
the Texan claim and ordered General Taylor to ad- 
vance to the Rio Grande, and a clash of arms soon 
occurred; but it has been very recently shown s^ 
that Polk was ready and anxious for war, even 
before the armed collision, upon the return of 
Slidell from his unsuccessful effort to treat with 
the Mexicans : Polk was doubtless anxious to 
distinguish his administration by the incorpora- 
tion of Texas and still other territory into the 
Union. 

As chairman of the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs, from 1843 to 1847, Mr. Ingersoll had of 
course a large share in all the events of the day 
concerning Texas, and he was an ardent annexa- 
tionist. He believed that the territory to the Rio 
Grande had fairly been included in our Louisiana 
purchase, and he constantly spoke of " reannexa- 
tion." This phrase of the day has been denounced 
as a " lying catch-word," but it had certainly some 

foundation, and, indeed, far more than most na- 

256 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

tional claims to vast unexplored and unsettled 



regions. 



Mr. Ingersoll was, moreover, evidently con- 
vinced that England and France were intriguing 
in various ways to prevent our annexation of 
Texas, and especially by securing from Mexico a 
recognition of her independence under a guarantee 
that she should not unite with any other country. 
An incomplete sketch by him of the acquisition 
of Texas quotes answers of ministers in Parliament 
to questions put to them and conversations of 
En^jlish cabinet officers with the Texan minister, 
which seem to leave no doubt that such an effort 
was making by the English. He says, too, that 
the English, French, and Russian ministers in 
Washington did what they could by conversation 
with members of Congress to caution the United 
States against aggrandizement. He himself was 
spoken to upon the subject by the French and 
Russian ministers, and doubtless would have been 
spoken to by Mr. Pakcnham also, but that they 
had had a falling out. He also calls attention to 
the transfer to Washington of Mr. Pakenham from 
Mexico, where he had grown thoroughly con- 
versant with Mexican and Texas affairs and feel- 
ings, and the sending to Mexico of Mr. Bankhcad, 
who had formerly been the English charge in 
Washington, and was thus conversant with Amer- 
ican affairs. 

17 257 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

The notes of Mr. Ingersoll are too incomplete 
to reproduce, but these facts from them are im- 
portant to show the influences under which he 
and the annexationists of the day acted. The 
Enghsh, moreover, had a most powerful lever to 
operate upon the Texans, for their proposal offered 
them peace with Mexico and the immediate cessa- 
tion of a border warfare. This attempt at European 
interference in an entirely American affair was in- 
tensely repugnant to Mr, Ingersoll, and doubtless 
added to his already ardent desire to see the im- 
perial territory of Texas incorporated into the 
Union. 

It was one of the misfortunes of his position that 

his committee was against him, and he was never 

able to secure a report. The committee stood 4 to 

5, Williams, of Massachusetts, and Stetson, of New 

York (who was appointed to fill the place of 

Beardsley, resigned), being the Democrats opposed 

to annexation, and all the Whigs being opposed. 

Mr. Ingersoll had prepared at much pains an 

elaborate report vindicating the American position, 

which narrowly escaped strangulation. Having 

been taunted in the House by Mr. Adams because 

the committee made no report on the numerous 

resolutions referred to it, Mr. Ingersoll introduced 

his intended report at a meeting of his committee, 

but an adjournment was carried. He writes that 

he was then warned by a better parliamentarian 

258 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

than himself of the imminent danger of his report 
being forever buried by a motion in the committee 
to table. Naturally anxious not to have all his 
labors upon the report thus put to naught, he 
called a special meeting, at which some members 
did not appear, and secured unanimous leave to 
withdraw the report. I presume his opponents did 
not appreciate their opportunity nor his intention ; 
but he at once avoided all risk of future trouble by 
publishing the intended report as a letter over his 
own signature in the Globe, in which form ten 
thousand copies of it were sold. 

During part of this period he made occasional 
memoranda ^9 of public events, which I shall here 
quote at some length : 

"Dec 2§. 4j. Mr. Adams having presented two peti- 
tions against the admission of Texas into the Union, and 
had them referred to the committee on foreign affairs, that, 
probably unwittingly on his part (I was mistaken : he un- 
derstood the committee better than I did), gives me charge 
of this subject. Gov. Gilmer, on that committee, is all 
agog for taking in Texas, which Major Lewis hints to me is 
because Gilmer is interested in land speculations in Texas. 
Yet Gilmer bears the character, and I consider him, an 
uncommonly independent, honest man. But it amazes 
me to find how common and open the interest of members 
of Congress is paramount. Major Lewis has given me to- 
day a letter from Gen. Jackson dated the i8 September 
last and shown me another of the 1 5 December to Lewis, 
by which it appears that Jackson is strong for annexation, 

259 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and I am struck with the cogency of his arguments and 
the wisdom of his views and methods. . . . Lewis prom- 
ises me some papers now in Upshur's hands, and to get him 
to tell Gilmer not to move in the matter, as he is interested, 
but to leave it to me a northern and disinterested member. 
My mind has always been clear for keeping Texas, and 
while I shall do nothing precipitately, I mean to begin 
forthwith my preparations, and fortify myself for future 
action by report or otherwise with notes of arguments to 
be moulded into form on short notice. At present, the 
south is for it, the east against, the west I don't know how 
it stands, the middle states, their democrats at any rate, I 
think I can convince that it is a great national measure of 
vital importance at least to keep England from meddling 
there. The Whigs and their papers oppose annexation, 
because, I presume, of their hostility to Tyler's adminis- 
tration, and of their wish to keep the presidential contest 
clear of it. In the Tennessee Legislature Lewis tells me 
the Whigs with majorities in both houses have put it asleep : 
but it will be roused up, and they constrained to vote for 
it, he thinks. 

" Saturday Dec jo. I dined yesterday, ex officio I sup- 
pose, as chairman of foreign affairs, with all the cabinet 
except the Secretary of the Treasury * who does not go into 
company since his son's execution, and all the foreign 
ministers at Washington except the English and Belgian, 

* John C. Spencer, of New York : his son Philip, a 
midshipman in the navy, had been recently executed at 
sea upon a charge of mutiny on board the man-of-war 
Somers. Captain Alexander S. Mackenzie was the cap- 
tain of the vessel, and his conduct in the matter has been 
very severely criticised. 

£60 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

at the Secretary of State's ; * a very handsome and gentle- 
manlike entertainment quite creditable to our host, and 
probably still more to his wife, a lady I never saw before, 
but well looking, well behaved and well-addressing. Min- 
isters of France, Brazil, Mexico, Austria, Sardinia, Holland 
and Texas ; a small diplomatic corps, only three of whom, 
the Russian and French, both with American, and the 
Mexican have wives. I have heard it hinted that since 

Gen. Jackson attempted to force Mrs. on society 

here, few foreign ministers bring wives. Van Zandt the 
Texan minister, who sat next to me, is a pleasing and in- 
telligent young man, who says his country is much misun- 
derstood, much less uncivihzed, he meant, than is gener- 
ally supposed. . . . 

" Tuesday Feb 6. In pursuance of Senator Walker's 
note received to-day requesting me to call on him this 
evening, as he is disabled by a hurt and cannot go out, 
but desires to make an important communication to me, 
I went, not doubting that annexation of Texas was the 
subject. I found Wise in Walker's chamber. We talked 
the matter over. Walker read a secret letter to him dated 
last November from our charge d'affaires in Texas, the 
amount of which is that if the U. S. do not forthwith take 
possession of Texas, England will. Also a late letter from 
General Jackson to Walker in which Jackson promises to 
write to Houston. Walker also read a letter from some 
one, whose name he did not give, dated lately at Jackson 
the capital of Mississippi to the effect that either Van Buren 
or Clay will get the votes for president of several States, 
as the one or other declares for Texas. Upon the whole it 
was rather a poor conclave as to any effect. I promised 



* Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia. 
261 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

to confer to-morrow with Gilmer, and see if I can get a 
report from the committee of foreign affairs favorable to 
the annexation which I doubt my being able to do. 

" Wednesday j Febricary. Affairs look ill for annexa- 
tion of Texas. The Committee of foreign affairs is against 
it. It will not be in my power to get a report from them. 
Gilmer, with whom I conferred confidentially is all agog 
for it. But I do not see any probability of it at present. 

"Sunday i8 February 1844. Major Lewis, said to be 
the greatest intriguer in Washington, an intimate friend of 
General Jackson, has paid me a long visit to-day, where I 
am confined at home by a cold. Lewis gave me a full 
view of the Texas affair, viz, Upshur, the Secretary of 
State, desires no action by Congress in it, till his messenger 
returns, who is expected soon. Jackson has written to 
Houston. Houston has changed his mind. He is now 
for annexation. That I doubt, if England tries to buy a 
man so predisposed and intemperate. Lewis, who is 
friendly to Tyler, says he is unsteady and liable to im- 
pulses. He advised him, when he quarrelled with the 
Whigs, to take democrats, particularly Cass, into his ad- 
ministration, as patronage may help, but cannot do all, 
Lewis thinks. Tyler is passionate, governable, vain and 
fickle, though not wanting in good quahties. . . . 

" Friday I ^ March. In conversation a few days ago 
with Walker about Texas, I told him that if agreeable to 
the president I would speak with him on the subject. A 
note yesterday from Walker informed me that at ten 
o'clock to-day Tyler would be glad to see me about it. I 
went and we had our talk, confidential as he requested 
and I promised. Murphy, our charge d'affaires there, has 
exceeded his instructions, Tyler says, and promised that 
our troops shall be stationed so as to ward off Mexican 

262 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

hostilities pending negotiations, which, Tyler says, having 
no authority to engage for, he has disavowed, and it may 
break off the negotiation, as Jones the Texan Secretary of 
State is a New Yorker, without feeling for annexation. If 
however it does not break off, Tyler expects in a few days 
another agent or minister from Texas with a treaty. His 
name is Henderson. Van Zandt is the one now here. 
The treaty will annex Texas with her public land given to 
the U. S., who are to take her and assume her debt of 
about ten millions of dollars. The Enghsh minister to 
Texas Elliott has stationed himself at New Orleans, to 
communicate freely with Pakenham the British minister 
here and the abolitionists. Tyler thinks that I should not 
move in the committee of foreign affairs till he advises me 
that he has sent in a treaty to the Senate, where he says at 
least 37 will vote for it, and pending its consideration there 
a report from my committee will be very important. Texas 
will come into our Union, or put herself under England, 
so he says. Houston, the president there, to whom Jack- 
son has written, is for joining us. This, I think, was about 
the amount of what Tyler said. I cautioned him as to the 
great importance of treating Mexico with every possible 
forbearance and respect, so as to appear well before other 
nations in this affair ; but not to know England in it at all, 
treat it as altogether an American affair, and if England 
interfered at all, repel her at once with decision. He per- 
fectly agreed in both points. I said it might provoke or 
justify England to take Cuba. He said then he would 
strike her at once without even waiting for Congress. There 
was a part of our talk, I forget how brought in, but I think 
by him, of a party complexion. He said that Texas would 
infallibly elect a democratic president and crush Clay, and 
that he Tyler is the person to bring it about, because he is 

263 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

president without a party. I said something of its causing 
a new organization of parties, which he desired, professing 
to be himself out of view as a presidential candidate. Dr. 
Martin * tells me and I believe from what I heard his son 
Robert say that Tyler is intensely eager and sanguine to 
be the democratic candidate for president, and considers 
Texas his stepping-stone. 

"Saturday April 6. Apprehension that France will 
join England in at least protesting against our taking 
Texas is the alleged reason, I believe, why Tyler now 
hastens to fill the French mission, by appointing Mr. R. 
King, who seems to be averse to go, after so long and so 
improperly leaving that place vacant. Part of the motive 
may be by offices to bring support for his nomination to 
the presidency on which he is now said to be bent. Silas 
Wright in the North offered the vacant judgeship ; King 
in the South the vacant French m.ission, and James K. 
Polk in the West to be offered the Russian mission in 
place of Colonel Todd now there by president Harrison's 
appointment ; all three prominent supporters of Van Buren 
for the presidency, to be thus taken to Tyler. Connected 
with that devouring element of party and personal politics 
I may mention, although not exactly a Texas story, in 
order to show the extreme suspicions which the East and 
the South sometimes reciprocate of each other, what Silas 
Wright told me, in, as he called it egregious confidence, 
on Saturday the 4. February, at dinner at Hulseman the 
Austrian minister's. An effort had been making, Mr. 
Wright said, for a fortnight, to his knowledge for a week, 
by Upshur to prevail on the slaveholding members to 

* I presume that this refers to the Dr. Martin who was 
for some years Chief Clerk in the State Department, 

264 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

withdraw from Congress under alleged desertion of their 
cause by the northern democratic and other members, by 
which secession Tyler was to become the southern candi- 
date for the presidency. I disbelieve any such scheme. 
But as Calhoun has withdrawn Tyler may flatter himself 
that he must be the candidate, and some think that Upshur 
would be likely to promote such a secession and such a 
nomination. 

" Wednesday 24. yf/rz7 (after mentioning another mat- 
ter) I also conferred with Tyler about Texas, and about 
the Austrian, Belgian, Dutch and English missions want- 
ing appropriations for outfits should changes in them take 
place. He sent a note on the subject by me to Calhoun, 
with whom I conferred on the 3 subjects and Texas. 

" Motiday 6. May '44. Since my last entry my occupa- 
tion with the Texas question has been such that I have 
had no time to note any occurrences in this book. My 
report was suppressed in the committee of foreign affairs 
by the votes of the 2 northern democrats Williams of 
Massachusetts and Stetson of New York (Mr. Samuel 
Beardsley who began the session as a member of that 
committee withdrawing Mr. Lemuel Stetson was appointed 
in his place) with the 3 Western Whigs. Between Clay's 
adherents and Van Buren's my report for annexation was 
voted down and I had no alternative but to withdraw and 
publish it on my own responsibility, as I did in the Globe 
of the first of May and with happy results, for it appeared 
in the nick of time, and eight thousand copies by private 
subscription have been ordered at the Globe ofjice, besides 
two thousand at the office of the Spectator's. My inter- 
course personal and official with Calhoun as Secretary of 
State has been intimate, and with Tyler quite kind — much 
more so than it was. It was yesterday settled between 

265 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Calhoun and me, jumping in judgment, that if the Senate 
reject the treaty of Texas, I am to move it embodied in a 
bill in the house, on which subject I am to confer with 
Tyler to-morrow morning. Calhoun has committed a 
great blunder by vindicating slavery in a letter to Paken- 
ham, and Van Buren a greater by publishing a letter 
against immediate annexation, when nearly all his ad- 
herents are committed, with most of the democratic presses 
for it. Calhoun, with superior talents, is extremely sec- 
tional and southern. I cannot guess how Van Buren 
made such a blunder. I think they are both demolished 
— fclo de se. 

" Tuesday /. May, 4 P.M. I had my interview with 
Tyler this morning. We talked the Texas business over, 
and he agreed to my suggestions. But not having heard 
of them before from Calhoun, said he'd think of them and 
let me know in a day or two. He talks big always, and I 
believe is almost beside himself with wish to run for the 
presidency, though nothing on that subject passed be- 
tween us. Afterwards I called on Calhoun and informed 
him of my interview with Tyler. Calhoun told me that 
he will abide by Texas, and not be a candidate for the 
presidency. 

" Saturday May 18. This morning in tete-a-tete with 
Calhoun he assured me that he has long rehnquished all 
idea of the presidency for himself, and came to the depart- 
ment of state merely to accomplish great national objects, 
Texas and Oregon, with none but patriotic motives, which 
alone he says, have governed his public life. I told him 
that I have long considered the presidency vulgar ambi- 
tion, that a statesman's reputation may go to history on 
much better reliance. He says he had retired, and means 
to write on government, that he had differed with Jackson 

266 



CtJLKd^- 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

because he required flattery as Tyler does, and that he, 
Calhoun, never flattered any one. He means to have 
nothing to do with Tyler's appointments. Calhoun thinks 
that abuse of the appointing power is ruining this countr)', 
and will infallibly do it, if continued as practised by Van 
Buren, unless checked by some great chief magistrate ; 
that no one has yet shown what a noble government ours 
is, if administered as it may and should be. In this way 
he talked well, but ended as usual if not invariably by 
arguing the absolute necessity of slavery to balance de- 2, 
mocracy, which, if unabated, will always oppress the 
poor, the ignorant and low. 

" Sunday I g May. Yesterday I dined with Calhoun at 
what he called a Texas dinner, and therefore make a 
minute of the company. They were Senators Woodbury, 
Walker, Sevier, Fulton, with Dixon H. Lewis, Pinckney, 
Henderson, one of the Texas envoys, without the others, 
Isaac Van Zandt, two young men whose names I forget 
who I believe are Texans, and Calhoun's son. Texas was 
the only topic. All were in high hopes of annexation, and 
having no body to contradict, we carried all before us. 
How much Httleness there is with all greatness ! Men the i i 
most eminent have their great infirmities, which is remark- 
ably the case with Calhoun. 

^' Monday June J. Mr. Dale Owen, one of the Indiana 
delegation in Congress and I went together yesterday from 
Sullivan's where we dined, and spent an hour with Van 
Zandt the Texas charge d'affaires, apparently a sensible, 
prudent, rather young man, evidently anxious for annexa- 
tion. He told us of the plan in present agitation, which :r^ 
Calhoun whom I spent an hour alone with immediately 
leaving Van Zandt confirmed to me : for Tyler, whenever 
the Senate either reject the Texas treaty or lay it on the 

267 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

table, to send a full open message to the house to serve as 
an appeal to the people on that subject, when Congress 
adjourn. Then some fit person will be sent there as our 
representative : Murphy our present charge d'affaires 
seems not to be ; and as the treat)' is in force for 6 months, 
that is till the 12 October, till when it is ours to ratify if 
the Senate will, the people are to be appealed to every 
where to condemn Clay, Benton and Van Buren's opposi- 
tion to immediate annexation. The then remaining and 
resulting and all important question is whether Tyler shall 
convoke Congress in special session early in September, 
supposing that the minority in which Texas is in both 
houses may become then a majority by means of popular 
will on that subject. This plan is all clean and good but 
for Tyler's desire to be elected president, for which he is 
fomented by crowds of vulgar fellows, deluding him to get 
places. But for this the proposed plan is excellent to 
carry Texas and defeat Clay by the same blow. But 
whether Tyler will relinquish his utterly desperate chance 
of nomination I doubt. If he does not the fearful responsi- 
bility of losing Texas will rest on Tyler, not Clay." 

No more of this diary is preserved, and shortly- 
after the latest entry Congress adjourned. From 
other sources it is apparent that Mr. Ingersoll con- 
sidered the ensuing elections a direct expression 
of the popular will in favor of the annexation of 
Texas. His diary has shown that the annexation- 
ists had planned to make an appeal to the people 
from the adverse Congress. In pursuance of this 
plan, not only did he make his canvass as a thor- 
oufrh-eoinfT advocate of immediate annexation, but 

26S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

he reminds us that Polk did the same thing, and 
notes how, at the next session of Congress, the 
first vote on the subject showed that the elections 
had changed many votes and had shifted the 
ascendency in Congress. 

Early in December he introduced from the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs a joint resolution 
for annexation, and on January 3, 1845, '^i pur- 
suance of a vote in a Democratic caucus the 
night before, he moved to go into committee of 
the whole to take up the resolution. This was 
agreed to by 107 to 63. He opened the debate 
in a temperate speech, advocating the measure 
as one of prime national importance, and fol- 
lowed it in its course through the House with 
care. On January 25, by a vote of 120 to 98, 
similar resolutions, moved as an amendment by 
Mr. Milton Brown, were passed and sent to 
the Senate. Here they met with bitter opposi- 
tion, and Mr. IngersoU writes that Mr. Barrow, 
of Louisiana, threatened at one time that his 
side " would prevent the passage of the resolu- 
tions by speaking till the 4th of March." It was 
only on the last day of February that the resolu- 
tions as amended were returned to the House, and 
the Globe newspaper and many persons doubted 
the possibility of securing the concurrence of the 
House in the rush and confusion of the last four 

days of Congress. It was a moment of intense ex- 

269 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

citement, but the " friends of Texas" triumphed 
in the end. Of these last scenes Mr, IngersoU 
writes, — 

" I succeeded, after some disappointments, in at last gain- 
ing the floor to move that the Senate amendment should 
be committed to the committee of the whole on the state 
of the Union, and contrary to my almost invariable prac- 
tice and avowed prepossessions moreover moved the pre- 
vious question." 

The Senate amendment was concurred in by a 
vote of 132 to ^6. 

Mr. IngersoU was one of those who did not 
expect war as a consequence of annexation, and he 
seems to have always thought that it would not 
have arisen but for the disturbing influence of the 
European powers. When it did come, and even 
earlier, upon the report of bodies of Mexican 
troops nearing Matamoras, he advised ^ President 
Polk to order General Taylor to cross the Rio 
Grande and " crush the invaders on their own 
soil," and he favored all measures for the earnest 
prosecution of the war. He, of course, opposed 
strongly the Wilmot proviso. 

Oregon, also, fell within the special domain of 
Mr. IngersoU's committee, but that body was again 
against him upon this subject, and in the Twenty- 
Eighth Congress he had to report a resolution that 
it was then inexpedient to give notice of termina- 

270 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

tion of the joint occupation. He, however, of 
course spoke in favor of the notice, and asserted 
most strongly the superiority of the American title 
to that " Titan region of prodigious growth." 

In the next Congress the committee was again 
against him, but by some chance^' a resolution in 
favor of notice was gotten through it and reported, 
and finally passed both Houses of Congress in a 
modified form. During the debate Mr. Ingersoll 
reproached ^^ the Southern members with their op- 
position, and expressed his regret to see a power- 
ful Southern combination against the first proposi- 
tion to add territory to the Northern States, when 
already in our history three territorial acquisitions 
had been made, all adding immensely to the power 
and influence of the Southern States. His intense 
Americanism made him an ardent supporter of his 
country's rights, and he is probably to be classed 
as a 54° 40' man. The point, however, which he 
most particularly emphasized in the debates was 
the almost entire absence of any basis for the Eng- 
lish claim. That the claims neither of this country 
nor of England were " clear and indisputable" is 
as certain as anything can be, but our claim seems 
to have been vastly the better one and quite as 
strong as such claims often are. Mr. Adams, with 
his long and intimate knowledge of the events con- 
cerned, supported our action in the main, and par- 
ticularly the notice of termination. And Mr. 

271 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Winthrop, who opposed the notice and stated at 
one time that he thought neither party had any 
really valid title, stated ^3 also that he thought that 
" the American title to Oregon is the best now in 
existence." Is it to be wondered that, with a lead- 
ing opponent making so pregnant an admission, 
others should take the view that this best title 
should be insisted upon ? 

With the later steps in the Oregon dispute it is 
not likely that Mr. Ingersoll had any connection, 
and, indeed, in the earlier debates on Oregon, as 
well as on other occasions, he had expressed the 
opinion that the treaty-making power is not com- 
petent to yield up any part of the territory of the 
United States. He complains, moreover, in an 
unfinished writing that Mr. Polk and Mr. Buchanan 
allowed him very little knowledge of foreign nego- 
tiations, far less than he had had under the pre- 
ceding administration. 

" My constant official intercourse with him [Calhoun]," 
he writes, "was so free that I found him as Secretary of 
State, with a president with whom I had neither personal nor 
party intimacy, both more familiar, imparting and satisfac- 
tory than their successors, president Polk and his Secretary 
of State Mr. Buchanan, both of my party and my friends, 
but shy, secret if not timid, and reserved. As head of the 
committee supposed to be in daily confidential communi- 
cation with them concerning foreign affairs, and fortified 
confidentially with Executive plans, measures, motives, 

272 



CHARLES JARED INGEP^SOLL 

and expectations, I was debited in Congress with much 
more than they ever let me, or even perhaps let each other, 
know and expected and constrained by my Executive 
superiors to maintain, perform and explain what I knew 
no more of than almost every body else." 

Mr. Ingersoll held no very high opinion of Mr. 
Polk in general, and in another place has written 
of him as follows : 

"He had served with ability as chairman of the com- 
mittee of ways and means, in the house of Representatives, 
and as speaker of that body in difficult times ; and he was 
elected Governor of the State of Tennessee, overcoming a 
majority there generally prevalent against his party. But his 
indefatigable industry and superior talent for what is called 
stump speaking carried him through an arduous contest 
with unexpected success. As I believe he was the first, so 
I hope he may be the last, president excelling in that 
derogatory talent for soliciting the multitude. In a country 
where common elocution is so cheap as to be nearly uni- 
versal, that condescension to the meanest degree of ora- 
tory, may be tolerated in aspirants for less eminent places, 
but is apt, as in Mr. Polk's instance, to disqualify for more 
dignified position. With no superior for that impromptu, 
often captivating but mostly vapid declamation, the prac- 
tice as I thought, contributed, with other defects, to deprive 
him of all elevation of thought and action. His delight 
was to tell of stump contests and exploits, to prefer the 
intimacy of those who preferred them to that of superior 
men in education, intelligence and deportment, to joke 
and laugh with political opponents in low bred relations of 
such adventures. While Texas and its resulting Mexican 
i8 273 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

warfare associated president Polk's name and administra- 
tion with some of the brightest and most impressive occur- 
rences of his country, he was far below their lofty level. 
His family was respectable, his education only tolerable. 
Except politics he had very little information, no turn for 
literature, science, polite refinement or social elegance. 
And above all it is a common mistake to consider him 
resolute ; he was not firm either personally or for measures. 
But having witnessed the wonders Jackson achieved by that 
natural endowment, president Polk affected it, inducing 
many to believe it his nature too. Still clearheaded, 
laborious, well disposed, and instinctively patriotic, his 
chief recreation was incessant study of constitutional prob- 
lems and merely current political questions — for the great 
science of politics he had no inclination." 

Mr. IngersoU was of the opinion, which was en- 
tertained by a large number of eminent public 
men, that all our disputes of this date with Eng- 
land were managed with too little insistence on 
American rights ; and he always held that Mr. 
Webster in particular was far too willing to yield 
under the dogged persistence and very liberal 
claims of the English. That great man has left 
such a mark on American affairs, and is so de- 
servedly held very high in American esteem, that 
the mere weight of his name almost carries con- 
viction, but contemporaries, of course, looked upon 
him differently. Mr. Ingersoll, for instance, had 
first met him as the bitter opponent of the war of 
1812 and as a threatencr of secession ; and he, of 

274 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

course, could not forget this, when Mr. Webster 
later came to be par excellence the upholder of 
every Federal power. He held that in the case 
of the Caroline and in the Ashburton treaty Mr. 
Webster yielded far more than the English were 
entitled to, and that in the conduct of the Caroline 
dispute his easy compliance tended far more to 
produce war than to avert it. It will be necessary 
to review the facts of that case to some extent. 

In December, 1837, at the time of the suppres- 
sion of the Canadian rebellion, a band of the 
Canadians took refuge on Navy Island in the 
Nia'i^ara River, near the Canadian shore. Here 
they were aided and provisions at least furnished 
them from our side of the river. In these opera- 
tions a small steamer, the Caroline, was used, 
which was partly manned by Americans, and this 
the English determined to destroy. They ex- 
pected to find her at Navy Island, but did actually 
find her moored at Schlosser on our side. The 
officer in charge, however, none the less at once 
attacked and destroyed the vessel. In the conflict 
an American named Durfee was killed, and the 
Caroline was then sent a mass of flames over 
the falls of Niagara. Public feeling in our country 
went at once to fever heat, and Mr. Forsyth called 
on the British minister, Mr. Fox, for redress. 
But, though the British did in a loose way justify 
the act, they did not avow it; on the contrary, 

275 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

the American minister became weary in trying to 
get them to do so. As late as three years after- 
wards, near the end of 1840, Mr. Forsyth once 
more wrote Mr. Fox calh'ng his attention to the 
fact that the British government had not commu- 
nicated its decision. 

But about this time the affair assumed a very 
different face, owing to the arrest by the authori- 
ties of New York, under an indictment for mur- 
der, of a Canadian named Alexander McLeod, 
who had loudly boasted of having been concerned 
in killini^ one of the " damned Yankees," and who 
then foolishly came over to our side. In a few 
days Mr. Forsyth received a letter from Mr. Fox, 
calling for McLeod's release, on the ground that 
the attack on the Caroline was " a public act of 
persons in her Majesty's service," and that he 
was not therefore amenable to trial. Mr. Forsyth 
reminded Mr. Fox that the United States had no 
authority to release a man held by one of the 
States to answer for a violation of State law, and 
expressly declined to admit the principle of inter- 
national law asserted ; on the contrary, he said, the 
legal prosecution of McLeod and the application 
to his government for satisfaction could both go 
on at once. 

Here the matter ended, so far as Mr. Forsyth 
was concerned ; but General Harrison had been in 
office but a week, when the new Secretary of State, 

276 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Mr. Webster, received from Mr. Fox a most im- 
perious demand for McLeod's release, coupled 
with a threat of the serious consequences of a re- 
fusal. Here is where the opposition contended 
that Mr. Webster made his first error, for he did 
not resent at all this insolent language and the 
threat of the British demand, and did at once con- 
cede to the full extent the rightfulness of their 
claim. 

In so doing there is at least grave doubt ^"^ 
whether he was right in principle, and he certainly 
did go directly counter to the views maintained by 
his predecessor. But he did more, and exerted 
himself strenuously to comply with the British de- 
mand, even to the extent of causing a serious con- 
flict with the State of New York. The United 
States Attorney-General was sent to supervise the 
matter in New York, and the lawyer already ap- 
pointed by Governor Seward to defend McLeod 
was appointed United States District Attorney in 
the district where the trial was to be held, so that 
the highest law officers of New York were on one 
side of the case, and on the other was the gentle- 
man who was United States District Attorney, 
while the United States Attorney-General was to 
take part on the same side in case of need. Seward 
complained bitterly of all this, and Mr. Adams 
said ^5 some years afterwards that he had been 
infinitely more apprehensive of the conflict between 

277 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

the United States and New York than of that with 
England. Happily, as is well known, the trial 
ended in McLeod's acquittal ; but there was for a 
time greater danger of war between England and 
the United States than at any time since 1815. 

Of course, Mr. Webster's conduct was very 
much criticised, and it is necessary to go into the 
matter closely, because it became later the cause 
of Mr. Ingersoll's conflict with him. Mr. IngersoU 
always thought that in the treaty of Washington 
there was far too much readiness to comply with 
the English demands, and that the easy-going con- 
duct of our administration in the Caroline dispute 
contributed to the difficulties of the Ashburton 
negotiation. Upon the case of the Caroline he 
spoke at some length in 1 841 in strong condemna- 
tion of Mr. Webster's course, and reviewed the 
matter ^^ again in 1846, when speaking upon the 
subject of the Oregon notice. Upon this occasion 
he said : 

' ' What he intended to state now consisted of facts not 
yet generally known, but which would soon be made 
known, for they were in progress of publication, and he 
had received them, in no confidence, from the best au- 
thority. When McLeod was arrested, General Harrison 
had just died, and Mr. Tyler was not yet at home as his 
successor. Mr. Webster — who was de facto the Adminis- 
tration Mr. Webster wrote to the Governor of New York, 

with his own hand, a letter, and sent it by express, marked 

27S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

'private,' in which the Governor was told that he must 
release McLeod, or see the magnificent commercial empo- 
rium laid in ashes. The brilliant description given by the 
gentleman from Virginia of the prospective destruction of 
that city in the case of war was, in a measure, anticipated 
on this occasion. McLeod must be released, said the 
Secretary of State, or New York must be laid in ashes. 
The Governor asked when this would be done ? The reply 
■\v2iS forihwiih. Do you not see coming on the waves of 
the sea the Paixhan guns ? and if McLeod be not released, 
New York will be destroyed. But, said the Governor, the 
power of pardon is vested in me, and even if he be con- 
victed, he may be pardoned. Oh no, said the Secretary, 
if you even try him you will bring destruction upon your- 
selves. The Governor was not entirely driven from his 
course by this representation. The next step taken by the 
Administration was to appoint a district attorney who was 
to be charged with the defence of Alexander McLeod — 
the gentleman who was lately removed from office — and a 
fee of five thousand dollars was put into his hands for this 
purpose. . . • Though Lord Ashburton came here with full 
power to adjust the Oregon question, yet it was adjourned. 
It was a gross absurdity thus to separate the northeastern 
from the northwestern boundary question. They should 
have been kept indivisible. The giving up of one would 
render more difficult the settlement of the other. He 
would call upon those gentlemen here who were acquainted 
with the facts, to say whether he was right or not in regard 
to what he would now state. Mr. Webster sent a note to 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, asking an outfit and 
salary for a special minister to England, to settle the 
Oregon question. The committee rejected the application. 
These were facts which no one would dispute, and he did 

279 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

not state them from any hostility to that gentleman, whose 
abilities he had always greatly admired, but with whom he 
had never agreed politically from the time when he first 
met him in public life thirty-three years ago." 

A debate upon this subject having arisen in 
the Senate, Mr. Dickinson, of New York, referred 
to this speech of Mr. IngersoU ; and Mr. Webster, 
in his reply in defence of the treaty of Washing- 
ton, indulged in such a coarse tirade upon Mr. 
Ingersoll as has rarely been heard in an elevated 
body. If Mr. Ingersoll's speech was highly 
colored and even exaggerated, Mr. Webster's 
reply was grossly coarse and in some particulars * 
extremely uncandid, to say the least. He denied 
having written a certain letter of importance in 
the coarsest language and charging intentional 

* Mr. Webster even went so far as to deny that the ad- 
ministration had attempted to interfere with the trial of Mc- 
Leod ; but if the answer of Mr. Dickinson should fail to con- 
vince any one upon this point, he need only turn to the pages 
of the lives of Seward and Crittenden : Coleman's Crit- 
tenden, i. 149-155 ; Seward's Seward, 538 : 552. I think 
Crittenden's letters show that he by no means approved of 
the administration's position, and Seward's letters to Crit- 
tenden certainly show that Seward thought he had a friend 
in Crittenden as against the administration. See also the 
letters of Webster sent to the House upon its call, printed 
in Executive Documents, First Session, Twenty-Ninth Con- 
gress, Vol. vi., Doc. No. 187. 

280 



chari.es jared ingersoll 

falsehood, while it was clearly proved later that, 
whether he had written a letter or not, he had at 
least asked verbally what he was charged with 
having asked in writing; and it is plain that the 
substratum of Mr. IngcrsoU's charge was true, and 
that Mr. Webster, in the management of the Caro- 
line case, was full of panicky fears of immediate 
war, and tried his best to influence Seward to dis- 
charge McLeod by the representation of these 
dangers. If the events of the day did not them- 
selves establish that fact beyond peradventure, evi- 
dence has since come to light which certainly does 
prove it. Mr. Benton well writes that the Caroline 
case was one " for an iron will, more than for a 
shining intellect ; and iron will was not the strong 
side of Mr. Webster's character. His intellect was 
great; his will small. His pursuits were civil and 
intellectual; and he was not the man, with a goose- 
quill in his hands, to stand up against the British 
empire in arms." 

Mr. Ingersoll did not, of course, let the matter 
end with Mr. Webster's attack, but proceeded at 
once to seek for evidence of a sort he could use to 
prove the truth of his own speech. His main au- 
thority was Governor Seward,* but his information 

* In a private letter to Mr. Gilpin, dated April 8, 1846, 
Mr. Ingersoll writes, " My authorities are Governor Sew- 
ard, for part, a record in my possession in the handwriting 

281 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

from him had probably come in the half-confidence 
of free conversation, and he evidently did not feel 
at liberty to use his name in any way, and was 
thus badly handicapped. While seeking for evi- 
dence he could use, he learned, evidently quite 
unexpectedly to himself, from papers in the State 
Department, that soon after Mr. Tyler's accession 
to the Presidency the contingent fund had (con- 
trary to the precedents of many years' standing) 
been transferred to Mr. Webster's own custody; 
that in this way some seventeen thousand dollars 
in all had been in his hands, and large parts of it 
for a good many months at a time ; he also found 
that when Mr. Webster left office there was an 
apparent balance of over two thousand dollars in 
his hands, for which there were no vouchers, and 
which was not accounted for for nearly two years, 
and then only when he was informed that the 
accounts required to be published ; he found also 
a letter to Mr. Webster from one F. O. J. Smith 
from Portland, Maine, marked " private," which, 
after expressing the writer's gratification at the 



of Mr. Adams for the rest, and my facts are certain, tho' 
I may have immaterially misstated what Gov. Seward 
told me." Until I saw this letter I supposed that Mr. 
Crittenden was his chief authority, and the later course of 
the controversy does point to him for authority on some 
points. 

282 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

new mode adopted of settling a long-standing 
dispute, went on as follows : 

" Considering the matter settled, I presume you can feel 
justified in enabling me to fulfil certain assurances which 
I made to a few individuals at different points in this State, 
whose services and influence I had occasion to resort to, 
in order to adjust the tone and direction of the party 
presses and through them of public sentiment, to the pur- 
poses so desirable of accomplishment under your adminis- 
tration. For my own services you can also make such 
allowance from the contingent fund as you may deem 
proper, merely remarking that all that was contemplated 
in my original letters to you of May, 1841, on the subject, 
so far as Maine and the voice of the people are concerned, 
has been happily realized. To the individuals alluded to 
above, three in number, I gave an assurance that in the 
event of a settlement of the boundary, they should be 
allowed a reasonable remuneration for their time and inci- 
dental expenses — and I should like to be able to remit 
them $100, or $125 each, if in my power. Nevertheless, I 
assumed no authority to bind your department, in any 
official manner on the subject ; but the whole rests in my 
confidential intercourse with them, and I leave it, after 
stating the fact, wholly at your discretion. I presume the 
contingent fund will be ample, and your control in it 
ample, to do whatever you think just. 

" I send herewith a bill for a voucher, with entire con- 
sent for you to fill the blanks as you may deem proper." 

After discovering these matters, Mr. Ingersoll, 
without consultation with any one, as he later 

2S3 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

stated, rose in the House on April 9 and asked 
leave to make a personal explanation. He then 
read a statement charging Mr, Webster with per- 
sonal use of the public funds, with corrupting the 
public presses, and with having left office a de- 
faulter, and introduced resolutions calling on the 
President for an account of all payments from the 
contingent fund during the period concerned, and 
for any letters in regard to a special mission to 
Great Britain during the Twenty-Seventh Con- 
gress, 

After an extended debate the resolutions were 
adopted by a vote of 136 to 28, but Mr. Polk 
declined to comply with the request as to the 
secret service expenditures, being of opinion that 
they should be kept strictly secret except in cases 
of impeachment. He added that there were no 
letters on the files in regard to the special mis- 
sion, and transmitted those to persons in New 
York concerning the McLeod case. Mr. Inger- 
soll then, in answer to Mr. Webster's denial of 
having sent a note to the Committee on For- 
eign Affairs asking for a special minister to 
England to settle the Oregon dispute, pro- 
duced by leave of the House the original min- 
utes of that committee in the handwriting of Mr. 
Adams, in which was a distinct memorandum of 
a " communication from the Secretary of State 
to Mr. Cushing and Mr. Adams" asking for a 

284 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

special mission * to Great Britain, which had been 
refused. 

Mr. Ingersoll next reviewed in a few words 
the evidence then known upon his allegation 
that Webster had in a panic tried to interfere 
with the authorities of New York to prevent the 
trial of McLeod, and certainly substantiated the 
essence of it. He also reiterated the charges of 
corruption, and there left the subject. He had 
been advised that it was now for Webster or his 
friends to move in the matter, but that gentleman 
did not see fit to ask for an investigation, and 
merely asserted on April 22 that the imputations 
were purely wanton and slanderous. Mr. Inger- 
soll then proceeded on April 27 to detail the 
charges at length, but, owing to the later course of 
the matter, I do not see that there is any need to 
go into these details here. After an acrimonious 
discussion, in which Mr. Ingersoll was charged 
with nearly all the improprieties in the calendar, 
a committee was appointed to investigate his 
charges, and another to investigate how he had 

* Curtis' s Webster (II. 175-177) prints a letter from 
Webster to Everett, in which the writer also speaks of 
this intended mission, and of his expectation that it would 
be offered to him. Portions of the letter bearing on the 
subject are apparently omitted ; and von Hoist (History 
of the United States 1846-50, p. 48) says that the letter 
itself is not in Webster's Private Correspondence. 

2S5 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

obtained his information from the State Depart- 
ment. With this latter we need not trouble our- 
selves here. 

The other committee met, took a good deal 
of testimony, and finally four of the five members 
united in a report entirely exonerating Mr. Web- 
ster, and at the same time explaining in smooth 
words how naturally Mr. IngersoU had, under the 
circumstances known to him, come to think as he 
had. The single member (Mr. Brinkerhoff), in 
his minority report, took a very different view, by 
no means exonerated Mr. Webster, and gave some 
glimpses of the evidence on which the majority 
had based their report. That this was scant, and 
in some instances derived from sources worthy 
of little or no belief, is a very moderate way of 
expressing the matter. 

In addition, it must be stated that the evidence 
was in reality ex parte, and that the committee had 
started out with the expectation of making just 
such a report as they did. Mr. Winthrop, as Mr. 
Webster's friend, was evidently in close confidence 
with the members from the beginning, and seems ^^ 
to have kept Mr. Webster informed, and the latter 
expressed his readiness to testify in case of need, 
but preferred to remain away, " if the committee 
appear to be taking a just and proper course." 
This letter of his was dated but a few days after 

the committee's appointment, and expressed the 

2S6 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

opinion that the committee ought to make merely 
such a general report as it later did, though al- 
leging an entire willingness on his part to have 
everything published. 

It is not possible to-day to say much more upon 
this subject. Even such testimony as was taken is 
unattainable,* as it was bound up and sealed and 
marked " confidential" by order of the House ; but 
the greatest admirers of Mr. Webster's career of 
distinction and of his splendid abilities must admit 
that he had not very high-toned scruples in money 

* Mr. Curtis in his Life of Webster (IL 283) makes the 
error of alleging that the testimony was all printed in the 
end, upon the motion of the majority of the committee. 
Such was not the case. The original report (yCo7igrcssio)ial 
Globe, First Session, Twenty-Ninth Congress, p. 946) pro- 
posed to print no part of the testimony ; but the minority 
report of Mr. Brinkerhoff having set forth at large the 
letter of F. O. J. Smith {ibid., p. 947), the House subse- 
quently {ibid., 988) ordered the testimony relative to the 
charge of corrupting the press, which that letter bore on, 
to be printed. Efforts were even made by the majority of 
the committee to induce the House to prevent Mr. Brinker- 
hoff from incorporating the Smith letter in his report. And 
so entirely wrong is Mr. Curtis that the House later voted 
down {ibid., 999-1000) a second effort of Mr. Brinkerhoff 
to print all the testimony. See also the report of the com- 
mittee and the fragmentary testimony on the one charge as 
printed in Reports of Committees, First Session, Twenty- 
Ninth Congress, vol. iii. Rep. No, 684. 

287 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

matters. It was during this discussion that some 
members charged him with being the " pensioned 
agent of the manufacturers," and alleged that a 
large sum of money had been raised by them for 
him ; and though the charge as to this fund was 
at first denied, it was soon admitted in its main 
features. There can be no doubt that a public 
man of high honor would have declined it ; to say 
nothing of the frightful example, he could not pos- 
sibly, after accepting it, deal with matters of interest 
to the givers with an eye only to the public interest. 
But Mr. Webster did even worse, and in at least 
one later instance accepted ^^ a gift of ten thousand 
dollars from a citizen immediately after taking his 
ground on a subject of great public moment in his 
famous 7th of March speech. With these in- 
stances thus coming to light, can there be much 
doubt that the financial weaknesses of that great 
man were known, in that general way in which 
such things are known, to the circle of those 
intimately acquainted with the public men of the 
day? 

Whatever any one else may think, Mr. IngersoU 
of course believed to the end the absolute truth of 
the charges he had made, and that the committee 
had whitewashed Mr. Webster at his expense. I 
think it was well understood at the time that the 
report was due principally to Mr. Jefferson Davis, 
the second member on it ; and naturally Mr. In- 

2S8 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

gersoU never entirely forgave him. While the 
controversy was at its height a large number of 
Mr. Ingcrsoll's friends at home tendered him a 
public dinner as a mark of approval of his con- 
duct ; but he was obliged to decline it, for reasons 
which will best appear from the correspondence 
upon the subject: 

" Philadelphia 30 April 1846, 

"To THE Hon. Charles J. Ingersoll : 

" Dear Sir, — A number of your fellow citizens having 
heard of your intention to remain a few days among them 
are desirous to express their respect for your patriotic ser- 
vices and confidence in your integrity as a public and 
private man. On their behalf we have to solicit your ac- 
ceptance of a public dinner at such time as may be most 
suitable with your engagements. 

" Without intending to anticipate or prejudge the future 
decision of the Councils of the Nation, yet late occurrences 
therein make this less an act of personal friendship or even 
political association than an expression of a firmly seated 
and deeply cherished conviction that a Representative per- 
forms few duties more imperative, as none is more certain 
sooner or later to receive unequivocal, and as we believe 
almost unanimous approbation, than when he fearlessly 
and with full sense of responsibility brings to light what he 
believes to be wrong in the conduct of public agents how- 
ever exalted ; and demands the open judgment of the 
people upon their actions while in office, not hesitating 
himself to await the ultimate result, and, in so doing, to 
submit his own character and conduct to the same ordeal. 
" We are with great respect 

"Your friends and fellow citizens." 
19 289 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" Gentlemen, — There are occasions in public life when 
such testimonials as your letter of invitation must be de- 
sirable counteractions of the abuse incurred by bringing to 
light the misconduct of exalted public agents, and en- 
couragement as important to unswerving firmness and 
constancy. 

" I am inexpressibly thankful to you, gentlemen, for ap- 
proval so respectably subscribed by those indicating, I 
trust, the support of the many more, whose good will is 
cherished as the best reward of any public service I at- 
tempt, and patent of whatever distinction I desire. 

"But before I was honored with your invitation, my 
arrangements were made for leaving home to-day for the 
seat of government, where the subjects it refers to require 
my attendance, besides the general transactions of Con- 
gress, 

" And may I not doubt also whether it will not be more 
becoming to decline the compliment you so generously 
proffer pending the ordeal which produced it. 

" I hope that you will allow me to deny myself the 
gratification of accepting it, with assurances of the grati- 
tude with which I shall ever remain, gentlemen, your 
much obliged and humble servant. 

"(Signed) C. J. Ingersoll. 

" May 4, 1846. 
" Philada." 

In the autumn of 1846 there seems to have been 
an effort made by a few Democrats to defeat Mr. 
Ingersoll for renomination, but it was entirely 
unsuccessful, and he was not only renominated, but 
elected again by a larger plurality than he had 
had two years before. In the next spring, during 

290 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

the last days of the Twenty-Ninth Congress, he 
was nominated by Mr. Polk for the French 
mission, a post which he had asked for and had 
probably wanted for some time. He was, how- 
ever, defeated in the Senate, upon the appeal of 
Mr. Webster, who urged that his confirmation 
would be a sort of endorsement of the charges 
acrainst himself: this fact was told one of his sons 
many years later by an ex-Senator. Mr. Ingersoll 
served after this through the Thirtieth Congress, 
and then retired. He was at the time sixty-seven 
years of age, and probably felt that he had lived 
long enough on the boisterous seas of politics, and 
was moreover doubtless anxious to devote more 
time during his declining years to the historical 
work he had taken up. His successor in his 
district was a Democrat, Mr. John J. Robins, 



291 



CHAPTER IX. 

His Practice at the Bar — Characteristics as a Lawyer — 
Judge Sharswood on — Some Instances — Qualities as an 
Orator — Instances of his Manner — His Denunciation 
of an Overbearing Judge — The John Sergeant Bar 
Meeting — Personal Appearance — Habits of Exercise and 
Diet — Dress — Eccentricity — His Residences — Fond of 
the Society of Women — Buoyant Spirits — Mrs. Maury — 
Religion — His Americanism — Belief in True Popular 
Government — Interest in Napoleonic History — Joseph 
Bonaparte — Earnest Advocate of Free Ships, Free Goods 
— Declining Years — Literary Work — "Second War" — 
"Recollections" — Other Works — "African Slavery in 
America" — Mr. Buchanan's Administration — Outbreak 
of Secession — His Views upon the Civil War — Death. 

That Mr. Ingersoll had for many years a very 
extensive practice at the bar has been already 
seen. From his first case in the Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania in 1806 until he went to Congress 
in 1 84 1, hardly a volume of reports is to be found 
without numbers of cases of his, the only excep- 
tion being from 1832 to 1835, when, for some 
reason I do not understand, there are none. His 
cases are also frequent in the reports of the United 
States Supreme Court from 1817 to 1829; and 

after that date, when he had ceased to be District 

292 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Attorney, several important causes argued by him 
are to be found down to 1841. 

The mere record of the number of cases won 
and lost is no criterion of a lawyer's ability ; but 
I think I can see that in the latter years of his 
practice he was less often successful than formerly, 
from which the conclusion to be drawn probably 
is that he came in that time of strong party feeling 
to be called in more often in cases of a desperate 
nature. His political course presumably estranged 
from him the great leaders in the business world, 
while the less fortunate were drawn to him, — and 
their cases are not those which succeed. It is 
worthy of note that he made the leading argument 
for the unsuccessful side in the great case of Bank 
of Augusta I's. Earle against Mr. Webster, Mr. 
Sergeant, and Mr. D. B. Ogden. This was a very 
important case, — rather one of politics or public 
law than of mere private right between suitors, — 
and presented the question whether the Federal 
courts would enforce a contract made by a cor- 
poration (a bank) of one State in another State. 
Mr. Ingersoll's argument against the power of a 
corporation thus to inject itself into another State 
than that chartering it was certainly a very able 
one, and he evidently entered into the case with 
intense interest. 

The prevailing view to-day probably is that the 
decision was both right and desirable, but such 

29i 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

questions were then far more open to doubt in the 
public mind than now; and the thoughtful ob- 
server may well question, in view of the unrest 
now so prevalent and the so general feeling that 
organized capital has too much power, whether 
our country might not have been more sound at 
the core if some of the most important decisions 
had gone the other way. Mr, IngersoU was evi- 
dently disappointed at losing this case, and wrote 
to Mr. Gilpin to that effect, but was told in reply 
that he should not be worried at his inability to 
defeat a corporation, when the whole country had 
to bear them, as Sindbad had his burden. 

The general nature of his practice and his quali- 
ties as a lawyer have been summed up by Chief- 
Justice Sharswood, and I cannot do better than 
quote the language of so competent an authority. 
In an obituary notice read before the American 
Philosophical Society he said, — 

"He entered upon the practice of his profession, and 
soon established a character at the bar which insured him 
large business, and what he prized more, extended reputa- 
tion. His first case in the Supreme Court of the United 
States, was in 1810, King vs. Delaware Insurance Com- 
pany, 6 Cranch, 71, — an important insurance cause ; and 
thence down to the period of his retiring from the bar, 
scarcely a volume of the reports of the decisions of the 
highest Federal tribunal is without contributions from his 
learning and ability. Subjects of mercantile and prize law 

294 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

largely engaged his attention, and the case of Evans vs. 
Eaton, 3 Wheaton, 404, upon a very difficult and nice 
question, arising under the patent laws of Congress, would, 
if it stood alone, be a lasting monument to his learning, 
ingenuity and legal acumen. The reports of the Federal 
Courts of this Circuit, as well as of the Supreme Court of 
Pennsylvania, are replete with evidences of an extensive 
and important practice, sustained on his part by unwearied 
industry and patient research. It may be stated as a 
matter of curiosity, that the first case argued by him as 
counsel, which appears in the Reports of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania, is Fox vs. Wilcocks, i Binn. 194, 
decided in 1806. Occasionally, too, his services were 
called for in the highest tribunals of our sister and neigh- 
bor States. But it was in the Federal Courts of this Cir- 
cuit, under the presidency of those distinguished jurists 
Bushrod Washington, Henry Baldwin, Richard Peters, and 
Joseph Hopkinson, that his severest professional lab.ors 
were undergone, and his richest rewards earned. . . . 

"The pages of Report books, however, furnish but 
scanty and unsatisfactory evidence of the professional 
career of a lawyer. It often happens that his most re- 
markable efforts, his most eloquent appeals, as well as his 
most able and learned arguments live only in the memory 
of contemporaries, who have had the good fortune to be 
present on the occasion which called them forth. Those 
only who have witnessed Mr. Ingersoll in the trial of an 
important cause, extending, as often happened, through 
several days — his tact in so opening it as to produce a 
favorable impression on the jury — the admirable order 
and arrangement with which the testimony was brought 
forward — his skill in skirmishing with his antagonist on 
questions of evidence — and the earnest, faithful and ex- 

295 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

haustive summing up of the merits of his client's case — 
tlie humor, sarcasm, irony and invective with which he 
assailed the positions of his adversary, can have any ade- 
quate idea of Mr. IngersoU's power as an advocate. The 
writer of this notice was present on an occasion when, at 
the conclusion of one of his most brilliant efforts, a crowded 
bar could not be restrained by the proprieties of the place 
from a momentary expression of admiration and applause." 

As to the particular methods he adopted of 
catching the jury's attention and invoking their 
sympathies, I find one instance in which he asked 
the court for leave for his client (the prisoner) to 
be taken from the room, and then proceeded in an 
impressive way to inform the jury and prove to 
them that his client was unsound in mind upon 
certain subjects. In another case, while represent- 
ing a Lieutenant Jones on trial for piracy, when 
something seems to have slipped from the prose- 
cution as to holding him, in the event of an ac- 
quittal, for trial upon another indictment growing 
out of the same offence, Mr. IngersoU opened his 
speech for the defence by saying that it was told 
that, upon the explosion of the infernal machine in 
Paris, after some of those arrested had been pun- 
ished, the judges had asked what was to be done 
with the rest — should they be discharged ? " No," 
replied the First Consul : " we shall want them to 
be punished for some other offence, though they 

have escaped this." 

296 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

A retired member of the bar told me that he 
was first associated with Mr. In<^ersoll in a case of 
Drew vs. Swift, in 1835, in the United States courts. 
The case was a bitterly contested one, growing out 
of a criminal prosecution. Drew and others had 
been indicted for forgeries, by which they were 
alleged to have cheated some of the companies in 
this city ; and on a preliminary hearing before the 
Mayor (Swift), a roll of money had been taken 
from Drew's person and identified as a part of the 
money obtained through the alleged forgeries. 

Upon the trial, however, Drew was acquitted, 
and, under Mr. Ingersoll's advice, he then brought 
a suit against the Mayor for money had and received 
to his use, — for the money had not been returned 
to him. Mr. IngersoU was originally alone for the 
plaintiff, while the defendant was represented by a 
long array of leading counsel, as the case was one 
which the corporations, which had instigated the 
original prosecution, had to defend. A first trial 
of about two weeks* duration had resulted in a 
disagreement, and at this trial Mr. IngersoU had 
taken no notes whatsoever of the evidence. Upon 
the second trial (at which my informant was pres- 
ent), as the witnesses were examined, it repeatedly 
happened that counsel for the defence insisted that 
they were not testifying as they had at the former 
trial. Mr. IngersoU would then come to the aid 

of the witness, saying in a caustic manner that the 

297 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

witness had testified thus and so : he would give 
the exact words from his memory and call upon 
the other side to look at their notes of testimony 
and see whether it was not so. In every instance 
they found his unaided memory correct, and so 
often did this happen that they grew afraid to enter 
into such controversies with him. Some one then 
asking him what he did to have the words so exact, 
he replied, " I do as the jury do, — trust to my 
memory." 

Another informant tells me a story from this 
same case, which shows how he would try to escape 
a difficulty. A text-book edited by Sharswood and 
another young man had been quoted against him, 
and the question of law was probably pretty clear. 
When he came to answer on this point he said, 
" It seems to me the gentlemen on the other side 
cite a book that is conspicuous for its paucity of au- 
thority," and he then opened it and read the title- 
page, emphasizing the names of the editors (then 
young and unknown men), and flung the volume 
to one side, saying, in his most sarcastic tones, 
" Pupils become teachers." He had, indeed, in a 
high degree that valuable faculty in an advocate 
of preserving always an absolutely bold front. 
No matter what unexpected developments might 
arise during a trial, or how desperate his case 
might look for the time, nothing in his exterior 
would show that he was in the least degree dis- 

29S 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

turbed. He would contest the unexpected with 
the utmost readiness, was most quick and inge- 
nious in finding a way to explain or distinguish, 
and when a point was overwhelmingly against him 
would still fight without a sign of any kind to 
show that he was surprised or conscious that the 
battle was going against him. The mere intrica- 
cies of the law — doubtless meaning principally 
practice — are said in one sketch to have been dis- 
tasteful to him, and he seems to have occasionally 
been tripped up for this reason ; but the same sketch 
goes on that, when he found himself caught in some 
such unexpected mesh, it was astonishing to see 
the power with which he would struggle against it 
and use his broad grasp of general principles to 
break down the petty obstruction in his way. 

All sources of information agree that he was an 
orator of unusual and even remarkable power. 
Some contemporary accounts of him have been 
preserved in " Sketches of the Bar," published in 
newspapers of the time, and I have found a few 
persons who heard him and have a vivid recollec- 
tion of his qualities as an orator; and they all 
agree on this point. Jonathan Roberts wrote him 
that he thought he had listened to him with more 
delight than to any other man, and an elderly 
lawyer, who often heard him and can reproduce 
his voice and intonation to some extent, says that 
he was the most attractive speaker he ever listened 

299 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

to, and always drew and held an audience. A 
leading man at the bar to-day, who heard him 
argue cases a few times, describes his manner as 
being as sharp and incisive as a hatchet. 

His voice was not very strong, and was rather 
high-pitched, but his enunciation was so distinct 
that he could always be heard with ease, even at 
the opening of a speech ; while as he went on it 
grew high, clear, piercing, and a little shrill. It 
was very w'ell under control, and he was able to 
vary it and thus avoid fatiguing his hearers, while 
he also always emphasized strongly the important 
words or parts of a sentence, so as to make his 
meaning perfectly clear. It is said that when he 
arose to address an audience he was always en- 
tirely free from nervousness, and he would glance 
coolly around and begin his remarks precisely as 
if he were conversing with his hearers. Gestures 
he used but sparingly, except under the influence 
of excitement, when he had some way of moving 
his head, and particularly of shaking his hand with 
his long index-finger extended at his opponent. 
One writer speaks of an odd shrug of the shoulder 
which he had, while all agree that his tones of 
voice, his gestures, language, and manner were in 
a remarkable degree his own, and quite different 
from those of any one else. 

At times, when his subject warranted it, he is 
said to have been able to attain the highest grade 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of eloquence, and to appeal to his hearers in a way 
to awaken the most powerful sympathies. But he 
did not waste himself in efforts to attain this in 
any ordinary case. Sarcasm, irony, and invective 
were weapons he constantly used. He could 
maintain a vein of raillery throughout a speech, 
and would often overwhelm an opponent with 
ridicule and expose his case to contempt. But in 
denouncing an opponent — and this, of course, 
held good especially in the field of politics— he is 
said to have been withering : 

" Invective follows invective — sarcasm crowds after sar- 
casm — one biting Saxon epithet succeeds to another, until 
the climax becomes overpowering, and human language 
seems exhausted of its terms of indignation ; when perhaps 
after a moment or two of playful irony, which deceives us 
into thinking his vocabulary is emptied, he startles you by 
bursting forth in his old strain again, pouring another tor- 
rent of burning epithets upon his foes, scorching, scathing, 
and lacerating them without mercy or intermission." 

Several informants speak of his exquisite choice 
of words as a strong characteristic, and they 
always followed each other with great ease and 
entirely without hesitation, as if his sentences were 
fully formed in his mind before utterance. He 
was, however, rather fond at times of using some 
unusual word or possibly coining one for the occa- 
sion, when it seemed to emphasize the point he 

had in view. 

301 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

A quality which particularly marked him was 
that which my informants have called unexpected- 
71CSS. It was impossible to know at what mo- 
ment he would break out into something in- 
tensely interesting. Even when speaking upon 
some ordinary subject he might launch out sud- 
denly and without a word of warning into a vein 
of interest; and this led those who knew him 
always to want to stay and hear him out. As an 
instance, a retired member of the bar told me that 
once in some very uninteresting trial in the United 
States courts, Mr. Ingersoll, apparently suddenly 
inspired by a bust of Judge Washington, had 
broken off into a most beautiful eulogium upon 
that jurist. I think, however, that ordinarily his 
excursions from the strict subject were likely to 
have a dash of something shocking to the more 
staid members of society. His opinions were by 
no means a stereotyped reproduction of those 
prevalent in his time, and he would not hesitate to 
express his views even to an auditory opposed to 
him. Possibly his outspokenness in this way preju- 
diced his cases at times. I have been told of an 
instance in which a juryman showed plainly, by 
some remarks to a witness, that his mind was 
made up against Mr. Ingersoll's case ; and the 
latter, when he came to speak, by no means dealt 
gently with him or endeavored by suasion to lead 
him over, as many lawyers would have done, but 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

attacked him severely for having a bias and making 
up his mind too early. Political opponents ob- 
jected at times that he was prolix and too diffuse. 
He was very fond of enforcing his meaning by 
the use of some illustration or striking expression; 
and it was probably this habit, coupled with the 
very pronounced way in which he accented the im- 
portant portions of a sentence, that led to his lan- 
guage burning itself into the memory, as my 
chief informant expressed it, when I wondered at 
his repeating entirely from memory parts of 
speeches delivered fifty or sixty years before. The 
same informant assured me that he rarely heard 
him without carrying away something. His illustra- 
tions were often historical. In his speech on the 
Loan Bill, in 1814, after referring to the frequent 
disasters of the Revolution and the endless bicker- 
ings against those then in authority, he went on, — 

"Yes, Mr. Chairman, there are venerable men of the 
delegation here of which I am an unworthy member, who 
recollect these things ; who have told me that in 1776 not 
a town, nor a village, nor a passenger on the road between 
Philadelphia and New York but was full of complaints 
against Washington himself, clamorous with despondency 
of the cause he was engaged in. Let us imitate the ex- 
ample of his constancy, not their despair." 

Speaking in the House of Representatives once 
upon Oregon, when affairs looked very warlike, 
he threw the members into great laughter by tell- 

303 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

ing them that he could only advise them, as 
Franklin had once advised the colonists, to " go 
home and get children as fast as possible." On 
another occasion, when replying in an Oregon 
debate to some members who had deprecated the 
dangers of our citizens crossing the Rocky Moun- 
tains, he expressed his strong dissent from this 
view, and said, — 

" I would not curb or crib that spirit of restless enterprise, 
of roving ambition, of love of danger, of action, and of 
frequent quarrel, which are, perhaps, national character- 
istics. . . . Why not stop Columbus altogether? He 
knew a lady who said that she would never forgive that 
Genoese vagabond for leaving such charming scjours as 
Paris, Rome, and other seats of European refinement, to 
discover this vulgar land of mush and molasses, hoecake 
and hominy." 

Nor did he hesitate, when the occasion called for 
it, to rebuke his own profession for its narrowness, 
reminding its members that Mr. Jefferson had 
spoken of " narrow-minded lawyers with lubberly 
law-books." Speaking upon the tariff once in in- 
tensely hot weather in mid-July, he is said to have 
begun his speech by saying, in his high and inci- 
sive voice, " Mr. Speaker, I have sixty shirts ;" 
then, after a short pause, he went on to say how 
in this weather he had often to change them, and 
thus illustrated the advantages of cheapness, which 
he attributed to our tariff. On this occasion he 

304 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

further illustrated his view from his coat of French 
broadcloth and cravat of Italian silk, " which I 
wear as some counteraction of the overwhelming 
English influence of fashionable tailors and others." 
American manufactures, he went on, were on their 
preferment, and generally more substantial than 
foreign ones. 

Mr. Ingersoll is said by some writers opposed to 
him to have been somewhat irascible in his public 
relations, and he was certainly of an impatient na- 
ture and restive under restraint. When he thought 
he was right he would blurt out what he had to 
say, often when others would judge his remarks 
wanting in tact, and any effort to restrain him or 
moderate his expressions was most likely to have 
the opposite effect, and to excite him by the contra- 
diction to more outspoken language. Once, as he 
rose to speak in the House of Representatives, 
there was a great noise on the other side of the 
House, and members there began to call out 
" Louder," " Louder." For a time he took no notice 
of the calls, but soon, as they continued, he turned 
sharp around upon the quarter whence they came, 
and in a perfectly quiet way but with the greatest 
positiveness and incision said, " No, I won't : if 
members upon that side of the House will but 
keep reasonably quiet, they will hear every word I 
say." The effect was instantaneous, and the noise 
ceased at once. 

20 305 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

In another instance he had evidently had a col- 
hsion with a well-known county judge, who was 
famed at one time for his arrogant and overbearing 
manners. This judge had entered a judgment 
against Mr. IngersoU's client for want of a suf- 
ficient affidavit of defence, under a practice which 
required a preliminary affidavit by a defendant be- 
fore trial, to show that there were disputed facts 
and a real defence. The affidavit was of course 
drawn by Mr. Ingersoll, and the judge had gone 
out of his way in the opinion to say that one of the 
points made was not " well considered." In the Su- 
preme Court upon appeal, Mr. Ingersoll read this 
part of the opinion, and said in his sharp voice that 
with all due respect to the court he thought it was a 
well-considered point, and proceeded to make some 
remarks derogatory to the judge. Chief- Justice 
Gibson attempted to check him, saying that they 
could not allow a judge on the bench to be so 
spoken of, but the interruption had the opposite 
effect, and Mr. Ingersoll launched out into a tor- 
rent of invective. " When a judge on the bench," 
he said, " indulges in such criticism, he lowers him- 
self from his high station to the same plane as the 
lawyer. Your Honors do not know this judge;" 
and then he went on to apply to him a succession 
of adjectives, each more severe than the other, — 
" rash, impetuous, and overbearing. Whenever a 
judge puts a sting into his decision, he becomes 

306 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

an insect I will tread upon." He continued in tliis 
strain for some time, criticising the judge most 
severely, to the great delight of the members of 
the bar who were present, many or all of whom 
had suffered from the same overbearing manners. 

Several persons have told me of Mr. IngersoU's 
connection with the proceedings at the bar meet- 
ing upon John Sergeant's death. His relations 
with Mr. Sergeant had been strained for a number 
of years, and it w\as probably for this reason that 
he had not been asked to speak. On this occasion, 
after Mr. Binney had made a highly appropriate 
speech and some of the lesser lights of the bar — 
all of course selected in advance by the managers 
— had indulged in the platitudes usual at these 
meetings, when the chairman asked whether any 
other gentleman desired to make any remarks, Mr. 
IngersoU unexpectedly took the floor. He was 
probably a little rasped at not having been called 
upon to speak at a meeting upon the death of a 
man who had been, like himself, largely engaged 
in the field of public affliirs ; and he thought that 
the other speakers had made a serious blunder in 
omitting to refer to that portion of Mr. Sergeant's 
career and confining their remarks to his narrower 
sphere of the bar. I am told that his manner was 
intensely pugnacious upon this occasion : he had 
been sitting on the sill of a window several feet 
above the floor, and, although he was at the time 

307 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

a man of about seventy, he jumped down with the 
utmost alertness and air of what he would have 
called " oppugnation," and began, — 

"Mr. Chairman, I am not in the programme, and I 
would have remained silent, but that I am of opinion that 
the gentlemen who have preceded me, have omitted to 
mention what I consider the most noteworthy feature in 
Mr. Sergeant's career, viz. : — the Panama Mission." 

He then spoke for some time of the valuable 
service rendered to the country by Mr. Sergeant 
in this matter and in his public career generally. 
Some of those who were present as law-students 
or young lawyers at this rare opportunity for them 
to hear the voices of the great retired members 
of the bar have told me how struck they were 
with the contrast between his view of Mr. Ser- 
geant as a public man and Mr. Binney's view of 
him as a lawyer; while another has emphasized 
the striking contrast between Mr. IngersoU's im- 
petuousness and lively manner and the generally 
dull decorum of the previous proceedings. 

In person Mr. Ingersoll was rather slight, and 
was of medium height, rather below than above 
the average. His hair was always cut closely to 
his head, and was described by the well-known 
Mrs. Maury as of a lively brown color ; to the end 
of his life it had hardly turned in the least degree 
gray. He was very erect and agile in his move- 

308 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

merits, and bore all the air of a man accustomed 
to command and to receive attention and respect. 
It has been mentioned that in his early years he 
looked much younger than he was, and this re- 
mained the case to old age, so that Judge Shars- 
wood wrote that " in his eightieth year he might 
well have passed for a man of fifty, erect, agile, 
scarce a hair turned gray or tooth lost." The 
same authority says that he possessed " a most 
excellent constitution, which he had preserved by 
the strictest temperance in meat and drink and 
by regular exercise ;" but I do not think he be- 
longed to that small number who have almost a 
redundancy of health. Even in his youth he had 
a rather delicate stomach, and all his life he had to 
take care not to offend that member. I find a few 
occasions where he complains that he had been 
compelled to eat a " greasy dinner," and was suf- 
fering in consequence all the pangs of a " remorseful 
stomach :" except on such occasions of necessity he 
always avoided grease, and his grandchildren can 
remember the almost horror he would express at 
the " g-r-r-r-ease" which he saw them about to eat. 
He was always scrupulously careful of his diet. 

Judge Agnew — one of the few still surviving 
who sat in the State Convention of 1837 with Mr. 
IngersoU — says that he was at that time ordinarily 
clad in a dark frock-coat, light vest, and gray trou- 
sers ; while Mrs. Maury speaks of him as " dressed in 

309 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

the old revolutionary costume of buff and blue ;" 
and one of my informants describes him at the John 
Sergeant bar meeting as dressed in a blue coat with 
brass buttons. This latter is the costume which 
impressed itself on the minds of grandchildren 
who recall him as a very kind and indulgent host, 
for whom, however, they felt at the same time a 
little wholesome awe. A writer in some " Sketches 
of the Bar," published in the Spirit of the Times 
in 1 841, speaks as follows of him : 

"His eccentricity, especially in dress, is proverbial. 
Sometimes he is dressed 'a la mode,' sometimes his coat 
seems an heir-loom from his ancestry, and sometimes, 
while his vest is of exquisite fashion, his hat is too shabby 
to discard. No matter whether he is to appear in court, at 
the bar of a senate, or before a popular assembly, it is all 
the same. His political adversaries, taking advantage of 
this, charge that to sycophancy, which is unquestionably 
the result of eccentricity." 

It was indeed charged that he purposely put on 
shabby clothes and even sprinkled dust over his 
shoulders when he was going to make campaign 
speeches ; but the charge was absolutely absurd. 
If the above is not enough to prove this, let it be 
remembered that he had many pronounced eccen- 
tricities all his life, and that the eccentricities of 
dress continued when he was nearing eighty and 
had retired from public life. And further, upon the 

sam.e subject, I will quote the following from Mrs. 

310 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Maury, whose acquaintance with him was in the 
high social and official circles of Washington : 

" He has a peculiar taste in hats ; sometimes he wore an 
old" shovel ; sometimes I have seen his head enveloped up 
to the eyes in a huge fur cap of villainous form and figure ; 
sometimes the crown is just touched by a straw broad brim 
of gigantic dimensions ; sometimes a dust colored chapcaa, 
shaven and shapeless, like a Yankee stage driver, in the 
Prairies. In vain I remonstrated against each of these 
varieties ; in hats he was perfectly unmanageable and re- 
sisted most triumphantly ' the doininion of the Foreign 
Petticoat: " 

During the sessions of Congress Mr. Ingersoll 
lived in rooms in Washington. Mrs. Ingersoll was 
not strong, and had a large family to look after at 
home, and he always went to Washington alone. 
He wrote in 1845 that he had been paying one hun- 
dred dollars a month, but had recently taken at 
fifty dollars a month " a pretty fair parlour and small 
bedchamber adjoining at the Columbian Hotel, 
a sort of new eating-house lately built by a German 
named Eberbach." It was this establishment to 
which Mrs. Maury referred when she wrote on one 
occasion to inquire whether he was again at " that 
repository for bad mutton-chops." He escaped in 
some degree the bad mutton-chops by frequently 
taking his dinner at other places, as with Mrs. 
Maury and others at Coleman's Hotel, and he also 
dined with friends very often. 

3»i 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

His Philadelphia residence for many years was 
the house now numbered 506 Walnut Street, 
while his summers were largely spent at a country 
seat, which he called Foresthill, situated at and 
about what is now Ninth Street and Erie Avenue. 
He seems occasionally to have taken driving trips 
to York or Lancaster or Harrisburg, and once 
went largely by carriage as far as Utica and Lake 
Ontario. He was always fond of horseback riding, 
and I find that on one occasion when he was en- 
gaged in some trial at Trenton he stayed at Bor- 
dentown with Joseph Bonaparte and rode daily to 
and from Trenton. According to Mrs. Maury, he 
was an early riser, often getting up at four o'clock 
and working until breakfast, and then taking up 
the regular duties of the day. His manner to 
young men, I have been told by those who had 
occasion to carry some message to him at his 
office, was kind and courteous, though his habits 
of command and incisiveness were also apparent. 

In his family he was extremely kind and indul- 
gent, always anxious to have some of his children 
visit him during his exile at Washington, when they 
would have a great frolic. He was very fond of 
society and of conversation, and frequently sought 
the society of bright women as a change from the 
great number of men he saw in public affairs. 
Thus I find that at Washington he was always a 
constant and a welcome visitor at the households 

312 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of several of the leaders of society, and it was ap- 
parently his habit to dine with some one of them 
on Sundays. His letters show that the gentle- 
ness and absence of strife he found in these homes 
afforded a delightful relief to him from the endless 
struggle of political affairs. While at home, too, 
he was fond of having some guest — probably a 
friend of his children — added to the family circle 
to enliven the household by an interchange of 
opinions. He corresponded frequently with differ- 
ent members of his family during the sessions of 
Congress, and was thus kept conversant with all 
the family news, while he gave in return much 
news, political and social, from Washington, as 
well as occasionally very good advice. Thus in 
one instance, when he seems to have disapproved 
of some expense incurred by one of his family, he 
wrote, " Pay as you go is the scripture of economy, 
and, when you can't pay, don't buy, but wait till 
you can." 

It is not to be wondered at that he was always 
welcome at dinners and in society generally, for 
his nature was very bright and cheerful, and he 
had in a high degree the faculty of interesting his 
hearers. Some of his older grandchildren can re- 
member this, and Mrs. Maury wrote that he was 
the delight of every dinner-party. This lady was 
an Englishwoman, the wife of the son of a former 
American consul in Liverpool. She came to 

3^3 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

America with one of her sons for her health, and 
was intimate with many of the leading public men 
in Washington, — with Mr. Ingersoll more than 
with others. She called him her guardian, and 
the pages of her "Statesmen of America in 1846" 
show how much she admired him and enjoyed his 
buoyant spirits and many bright sayings. Judge 
Sharswood, speaking of Mr. Ingersoll in society, 
writes, — 

" He was a free and attractive conversationalist, and one 
could rarely leave a company of which he had been a 
part, without carrying with him something well thought or 
said by him. An ex-President of the United States [doubt- 
less Mr. Buchanan] , who had represented this country at 
two foreign courts, and who largely cultivated the society 
of distinguished men at home and abroad, used to say 
that, when in the vein, Mr. Ingersoll was the most agree- 
able man he had ever met at a dinner-table." 

His outspokenness and the free expression of his 
opinions led some to look upon him as very radi- 
cal and extreme, and his occasional fierce encoun- 
ters with political opponents have made a few 
think him vindictive ; but no greater mistake could 
be made. His whole life shows sufficiently that 
such passions were far from him, and it will be 
enough to quote the following from Mrs. Maury : 

" He is curious in seeking the motives of men, and has 
frequently given me the key of the characters of those 
around us with much acutcness and felicity ; and I have 

314 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

ever found him inclined to praise rather than to censure. 
He has no secrets, and can keep none ; the only error of 
his nature being an uncontrollable impulse to utter at 
once, regardless of time and place, the thing he feels, or 
knows, or even suspects. If this excess of candour some- 
times leads him beyond the bounds of caution, it displays 
also the most noble and most generous sentiments that 
can animate the breast of man ; open to conviction, ready 
to acknowledge an indiscretion, and earnest to ask as he 
is happy to grant forgiveness, his character exhibits all the 
warm uncalculating sensibilities of youth. . . . Headlong 
and rash, et brave comme son epee, three score years and 
three have failed to cool that hot impetuous blood, which 
dances rather than flows in his veins ; but again, a silken 
cord can lead him ; can check his haste and curb his 
anger ; and induce him to feel and practise the magna- 
nimity of forbearance. To me he accorded his constant, 
unreserved, and most intimate confidence ; and I declare, 
and solemnly as I hope for mercy, that the breast of Inger- 
soU is guiltless of all wilful malice, and free from all vin- 
dictive passions ; but happier would he be had he more 
cunning to be more discreet. This much I trust he will 
permit from me, in all the sincerity of affection and re- 
spect. So gentle, so easily affected is he, that I have 
somedmes invented a pathetic story that I might see my 
Guardian weep ; and on a public occasion, one of the 
most interesting of my life [a dinner given her by the 
ladies at Washington] , the emotion which he who sat at 
my side displayed, was among the most touching events 
of that proud and happy day." 

Mr. Ingersoll appears to have been in the habit 
of often going to church, but made a point of going 

315 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLI. 

where he would hear an able sermon, and did not 
confine himself to attendance upon any special de- 
nomination. His father had been a Presbyterian, 
and I think he was one for many years of his life. 
Mrs. Maury says that he was a Presbyterian at the 
time of her acquaintance, but he later joined the 
Episcopal Church. Judge Sharswood says, " He 
was a sincere and firm believer in the truth of 
Christianity, without the slightest taint of bigotry 
or fanaticism, and attached to the forms and wor- 
ship of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the 
communion of which he died." 

He was very liberal, knew and admired a good 
many Roman Catholic prelates, and seems to 
have been in the habit of dining occasionally with 
the Jesuits at Georgetown College. In the House 
once he attacked Mr. Levin, the Native- American 
member from Philadelphia, for making an appeal 
to religious prejudices, and offered to take him 
to Georgetown and introduce him to the Jesuits 
there, — " men," he said, " who have maintained the 
standing of that institution for these fifty or sixty 
years past, while, during that same period, bishop 
after bishop of the Protestant churches has been 
convicted of inebriety and promiscous amours, and 
been degraded for the grossest vices. For fifty 
years, those Jesuit fathers have been disseminating 
the doctrines of human freedom, as well as the 
treasures of science, to the youth of America, and 

.7 1 6 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

not an instance has occurred of anything to their 

dishonor." 

Mr. Ingersoll was an ardent behever in his coun- 
try whos^'e stupendous strides he had witnessed in 
his own Hfetime. He thought that her future was to 
be great and her influence on the world enormous ; 
and this influence was not, I judge, in his estima- 
tion destined to be confined to indirect results from 
the spread of our principles of government, but 
was to be to some extent direct. I think he be- 
lieved in our exercising a wider sphere as one of 
the powerful nations of the world than we have 
done, and at several times in his life, when he 
thought foreign nations showed an inclination to 
interfere with us, he was up in arms at once. I 
know of no instance where he desired to mter- 
min-le in European affUirs or to enter into any 
entangling alliances, and I find him writing Mr. 
Gilpin in November, 1838, to express the hope that 
in the forthcoming message of the President 
" American position will be taken against England 
as to Canada,— not brigand patriotism, but true 
American." He undoubtedly believed that this 
continent should be ours,-not that it should be 
united under one head, but that we should be the 
one crreat power and should not allow any other 
to gain the least foothold. For this purpose he 
would have faced war at any day. 

I do not think that he can be classed as a strict 

317 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

constructionist : on the contrary, he would most 
likely have convinced himself that the constitution 
conferred the power he wanted. In a contempo- 
rary sketch of him, which probably passed throu^^h 
his hands before publication, I find quoted with 
apparent approval a saying attributed to Monroe 
during the Second War, '* After the war we'll think 
of constitutional points." 

Of the fitness of the people, the uneducated and 
very poor as well as the well-to-do and the learned, 
to participate in government he was absolutely 
convinced ; and he of course extended this to 
those who could not read or write. It was his 
opinion that the decision of a large number of 
human beings is much more likely to be right 
than that of a few, and he doubtless believed that 
universal suffrage is useful in giving a broad 
foundation to the expression of the popular will 
and tending to cancel and annul any ill effects from 
the selfishness of classes. He held, I think, that 
no human being can foresee more than a very short 
distance, and that the difference in this respect 
between the learned and the unlearned comes to 
extremely httle in the smallness of any human 
knowledge. He often remarked on this point how 
quickly in times of popular upheaval, when the 
vested advantages of the upper classes are reduced 
to a minimum, the lowly born rapidly take the 
lead and crowd aside the weakhngs of luxury. 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" Yes, sir," he said ^ once in the House, " when 
the combined arms of Europe invaded unarmed 
France, the militia, the common people, who 
elected, at the drum-head, cobblers and tinkers 
and ostlers to command them, went forth to battle 
against the princes and nobles who led well-trained 
armies to expected conquest, and drove them back 
into nearly every capital of Europe, which they 
captured." 

Though he would at times approve of the most 
active steps for the repression of tumult, — as ap- 
parently in the case of the Philadelphia riots of 
1844 and notably in Jackson's conduct of affairs in 
New Orleans and in Florida, — yet he had none of 
that deep dread of the " mob" which many have. 
I have been told that once, in a speech, he described 
the United States as " a nation born of a Boston 
mob," and on another occasion in an argument of 
a law case he said that he would put himself at the 
head of a mob to accomplish the purpose intended 
by the act of Assembly under consideration. 

Another informant told me that he was present 
at an excited discussion between Mr. IngersoU and 
Mr. Dallas and Mr. Richard Rush. Mr. Inger- 
soU had expressed his admiration for the French, 
while the others disparaged them and preferred the 
English: when they complained that the French 
always act hastily and on impulse, Mr. IngersoU 
replied that " an ounce of impulse is worth a ton 

319 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of second thoughts." As the warmth of the dis- 
cussion increased, they drifted on to the French 
Revolution, for which Mr. Ingersoll expressed his 
admiration, saying that revolutions are good things 
occasionally: "they are like thunder-gusts, to 
clear the atmosphere." This was awful to the 
others, who spoke of the " mob," and asked what 
he would do to stop it. " Nothing," he replied, 
"nothing. I would put myself at the head of it 
and lead it." 

The admiration for the French which he ex- 
pressed in this discussion was a feeling which he 
had throughout his whole life. Originating ap- 
parently during his visit to Paris as a young man, 
and afterwards a very natural growth from the lines 
of political division existing during the long strug- 
gle between France and England for supremacy, 
the feeling never waned, and he always took the 
deepest interest in matters of French history and 
particularly of the time of Bonaparte. In his " His- 
tory of the Second War" quite a large space is 
devoted to French history of that time, and in 1830, 
in an article in the Amcricaii Quarterly Review 
upon Bourrienne and Napoleon, he showed how 
these subjects had always interested him. This 
article appeared just about the time of the Revolu- 
tion of 1830, and, as written by its author, had 
foretold the downfall of Charles X., but unfor- 
tunately Mr. Walsh, more or less with Mr. Inger- 

320 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

soil's authorization to curtail, cut out exactly this 
prophetic part. This was of course a lamentable 
misadventure to a man in public affairs, and be- 
came the subject of a warm attack upon Mr. 
Walsh in the Philadelphia Inquirer, with which 
Mr. IngersoU had nothing to do. 

When Joseph Bonaparte came to live near Phila- 
delphia, Mr. IngersoU early made his acquaintance, 
and the acquaintance soon developed into a friend- 
ship from which both evidently derived much 
pleasure. They often saw each other on the most 
confidential terms, and Mr. IngersoU was a fre- 
quent guest at Point Breeze, where he met also Mar- 
shal Grouchy, Generals Clausel, Bernard, Charles 
and Henry Lallemand, Lefebvre Desnouettes, and 
Vandamme, and other exiled French army officers, 
besides Regnault de St.-Jean d'Angely, Count Real 
the prefect of police, and sons of Fouche and of 
Marshals Lannes and Ney. With the ex-king of 
Spain and with these persons, all of whom had 
been actors and some of whom had taken vastly 
important parts in the stupendous drama of then 
recent history, Mr. IngersoU had many conversa- 
tions upon the great events and the great per- 
sonages of the time, and derived from them an 
insight into history which can be gained only in 
some such way. It was, as he wrote, " reading 
history, biography, politics, and philosophy in their 
most attractive pages," and it was the history of a 
21 321 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

time in which he took the most intense interest. 
He formed a plan, with Joseph's knowledge and 
hearty approval, of writing a history of the rise 
and fall of Bonaparte, but it was only partly exe- 
cuted in some of the chapters of the " Second War." 
Joseph Bonaparte always watched events in 
France with much care, feeling himself in a sense 
the head of the Bonaparte family and bound to 
look after the interests of the young Duke of 
Reichstadt, the son and legitimate successor of the 
great Emperor. A diary of Mr, IngersoU's shows 
that Joseph had agents in Paris, Vienna, and other 
capitals, who kept him regularly informed of public 
sentiment in Europe. And when the Revolution 
of July, 1830, came, Mr. Ingersoll was in frequent 
confidential communication with him, advising as 
to the best course to pursue, as well as writing some 
letters to the public papers (especially the Sentinel) 
at his instigation, and translating several of the ex- 
king of Spain's letters for publication in this country. 
He had at one time offered to go to Europe on his 
behalf, and in September of 1830 Joseph asked him 
to allow one of his sons to go to Vienna to com- 
municate with the Duke of Reichstadt or his mother, 
but the plan was abandoned upon the proclamation 
of Louis Philippe as king. Mr. Ingersoll was also 
consulted as to Joseph's letter on behalf of the 
Duke of Reichstadt and the Napoleon family to 

the French Chamber of Deputies and his other 

.^22 



CHARLES Jx\RED INGERSOLL 

letters to leading governmental people at that 
time ; but the arrival some months later of the 
stale news that the Chamber of Deputies was dis- 
solved, and other difficulties experienced by the 
ex-king in dealing with his plans at such a dis- 
tance, led to the decision that he must himself 
return to Europe and be nearer the scene of action. 
With his departure there came to an end what had 
been a very delightful acquaintance 7° to Mr. Inger- 
soll. In much later years he was sent for by some 
of the Bonaparte family who visited this country. 
Joseph Bonaparte left him by will a beautiful statu- 
ette of General Bonaparte of the time of the Italian 
campaigns, which is preserved by a grandson. 

Mr. Ingersoll's views upon many special ques- 
tions and upon many of his contemporaries have 
appeared in the course of this book, but something 
more needs to be said upon a few subjects. Of 
Mr. McDuffie he wrote in 1844, describing him as 
" a strange isolated sort of man, great talents, but 
a mere politician, yet no party man, with a bullet 
sticking to his spine, which no surgery can remove 
and which makes him very rickety and poorly." 
At one time of his life, in 1823, he already fore- 
saw 7' that Latin and Greek were losing their pre- 
eminence as means of education; but I judge 
that he modified this opinion later, for I find him 
writing to Mrs. Maury and expressing his agree- 
ment with her " upon the superior use and value 

323 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of the classics in the formation of mind and char- 
acter." He had also as a young man been strongly 
in favor of removing the capital from Washington 
to Philadelphia or some other important city, and 
thought the plan easy of attainment, but came later 
to change this opinion altogether. 

He seems to have been active in obtaining cer- 
tain legislation, which has been much criticised, 
but has held its place and even been widely ex- 
tended. When in the Legislature in 1830 he 
introduced 7- a bill " for the security of mechanics, 
journeymen, laborers, and others," which was later 
passed, and was the first general law in the State 
upon its subject. He also introduced a resolution 
looking to the abolition of imprisonment for debt 
in cases under one hundred dollars. 

From early youth all through his life he was an 
earnest advocate of a liberal law of nations, and 
particularly of the doctrine of free ships, free 
goods. The travesty upon international law 
which was carried on with a high hand by the 
great powers during the Napoleonic wars found 
in him an uncompromising opponent. He took 
his stand upon the general subject in 1808 in 
" Rights and Wrongs," denouncing paper block- 
ades and impressment, and asserting his conviction 
that the world would come in time to maintain the 
immunity of all private property in war on the 
ocean, as it already had dorie on the land. 

324 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

" If," said he, " a concert with Russia, France, 
Holland, and Spain, all of whom with Denmark 
must desire it, could be effectuated for freeing the 
ocean of privateers and search ships, and direct- 
ing by common agreement the operations of war 
against ships of war, leaving the merchantman to 
the peaceable pursuit of his traffic, and if such a 
system could be secured without our being drawn 
into hostilities, it certainly were a consummation 
devoutly to be wished." 

On the floor of the House during the War of 
1812, as has been seen, he urged this same policy, 
but his very moderate claims met with unqualified 
denunciation and ridicule from the Federalists and 
found scant approval from his own party, though 
we were then actually engaged in a war for their 
maintenance. In July, 18 14, he wrote to Mr. 
Madison expressing wonder at this opposition, and 
stating that his position had been that it was " the 
right and interest of this country to assert and 
maintain the principle that free ships make free 
goods, not as a point to wage war for per sc, but as 
one which it behooved us never to lose sight of. 
I remember with pleasure," he went on, " that I 
once heard you assert this principle, but in Con- 
gress and in the Supreme Court I am sorry to say 
that it was almost friendless. Such is the influ- \J 
ence of England! We read none but English 
books, adopt none but English ideas of law and 

325 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

politics." Mr. Madison replied that Mr. Jeffer- 
son had rather taken the other view in his cor- 
respondence with Genet, but that he himself 
thought -the principle good and desirable, and 
that unarmed vessels, like ploughs, ought not to 
be molested. 

In 1824, upon disputes on kindred subjects 
arising during the revolts of the Spanish colonies, 
Mr. Ingersoll wrote " to Mr. Adams, then Secretary 
of State, proposing that " we should proclaim and 
enforce a new and liberal American law of nations, 
and particularly that free ships should make free 
goods." Mr. Adams, whose opinions evidently 
inclined the same way, read this letter at a meet- 
ing of the Cabinet, but it was determined not to 
resort to force at that time, and the point in dis- 
pute was apparently settled in some more quiet 
way. Finally, in his " Law of Foreign Missions," 
in 1845, Mr. Ingersoll again advocated the same 
views, and wrote that it had long been among 
his fondest fancies that it was a part of American 
destiny thus to ameliorate the law of nations. 

If the views he held upon this subject have not 
yet been all adopted by the world, at least a very 
large part of them has, and the tendency of the 
leading nations has been decidedly towards all 
those principles upon the subject, which he began 
to advocate at a time when the majority of the 
leading men even of his own country were against 

326 



CHARLES JARED IXGERSOLL 

him, and when many thought his ideas merely- 
chimerical. 

During- the thirteen years which elapsed be- 
tween Mr. IngersoU's retirement from Congress 
and his death he rarely took any active part in the 
public affairs of the day. He was once at a bar 
meeting, and possibly in court on a few other oc- 
casions, and he continued to watch the course of 
events with deep interest, but his main occupation 
w^as literary work. He had many years before, as 
early as 1817, formed the plan of writing a history 
of the War of 18 12, and he seems to have begun 
then to collect materials for this purpose, but the 
pressure of his work at the bar and other causes 
delayed the book, and the first volume appeared 
only in 1845, the second in 1849, ^"^ *^^^ ^^^'O ^^^t 
in 1852. I think he worked at it often in leisure 
hours during the sessions of Congress, and he 
devoted to it a vast deal of time and energy. 

He called the book an " Historical Sketch of the 
Second War between the United States of America 
and Great Britain, declared by Act of Congress 
the iSthof June, 1812, and concluded by peace the 
1 6th February, 1815." It is by no means a mere 
description of battles and campaigns, but aims to 
trace causes and show the history of the legisla- 
tion of the time, and of course contains a great 
deal about the European history of the day. Later 
he wrote a volume of " Recollections," which was 

327 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

printed during his lifetime, but not issued until 
a good many years later. He had also begun his- 
tories of our acquisitions of Louisiana and Texas, 
and of the disputes over Oregon and the Maine 
boundary, but these were all left by him unfinished. 
I have used them to some extent in this book. 

In 1843 he had read before the Law Academy 
of Philadelphia an address on the " Law of Foreign 
Missions," which was printed in the Public Ledger 
of October 25, 1843, and also in the American 
Lazv Magazine for January, 1845. It was the 
result of a close study of a great many authors, 
and involved a vast deal of labor. At some much 
earlier period — at least as early as 1829, but I 
have not been able to fix its date more closely — 
he had written "Julian, a Tragedy." This was, I 
think, never produced on the stage. It is in blank 
verse, and is founded on the story of the death of 
Julian the Apostate. The preface describes it as 
the work of ** a very young essayist, who, discard- 
ing lovers and villains, attempted to develop ambi- 
tion, patriotism, pride, remorse, and selfishness as 
the ruling passions, from whose indulgence to 
excess a moral always results in retributive jus- 
tice." His other works have sufficiently appeared 
in the course of this sketch. 

The style of Mr. Ingersoll's writings in his early 

days was perfectly clear, but that of his later 

works has been much criticised as being involved 

323 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

and difficult to follow. This is not the place to 
consider this question, and the works must speak 
for themselves. Style is very largely a matter of 
taste, and the involved style of Carlyle has been 
greatly admired by hosts of readers. Mr. In- 
gersoll was an admirer of Carlyle, and some have 
thought that this admiration led to his endeavor- 
ing to follow that writer's style. One who often 
saw him very intimately in his latter years has 
said in my hearing that he was usually to be 
found at his table, fairly walled in with a mass of 
books, and with his quill rushing over the paper 
at a high rate of speed. The manuscript works 
which have been in my hands show also that he 
changed his text in a large degree and frequently 
transferred portions of it. Adjectives and adjec- 
tive clauses, and phrases to illustrate or to limit, 
have been in many instances interlined or inter- 
paged ; and this seems to have been often done 
in review, as sometimes much the same idea is 
contained in a succeeding sentence of the original 
text. Whatever may be thought of the style, 
the works are all full of matter. Of many of the 
subjects treated the author had a most intimate 
knowledge from having taken part in them ; and 
of all of them he had been a student and a close 
observer all his life, intimate with many and ac- 
quainted with all the figures on the stage of public 
life. 

3-9 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

Mr. Ingersoll was, as has been seen, for many- 
years deeply impressed with the perils to the 
country incident to the slavery disputes, and as a 
part of his history of Texas he had to some extent 
examined the history of slavery in this country. 
About the time of the Presidential election of 1856, 
no doubt instigated by the heated contests upon 
the subject then raging and causing so much hos- 
tility between the sections, he enlarged and com- 
pleted this sketch and published it after the elec- 
tion as a pamphlet, under the title" African Slavery 
in America." He of course adhered to the views 
he had always maintained, and aimed to avoid the 
fomentation of excitement. Its publication was 
probably intentionally delayed until after the elec- 
tion, and it began by saying that Pennsylvania was 
the meridian, and "an aged descendant from New 
England, withdrawn from party politics," was not 
an improper person to submit to the whole country 
a temperate view of the matter. 

That slavery was an evil was to him clear, nor 
did he hesitate, either in this pamphlet or while 
he was in public life, to announce this view and to 
refer to the strange result of the abolition excite- 
ment upon the South in driving it to defend slavery 
as a beneficial institution. But his view was that it 
was an established and existing fact, which could 
not be suddenly uprooted except by evils far worse 
than slavery itself. The abolition movement was 

330 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

in his opinion harmful, and served only to prevent 
or delay the attainment of freedom for the negroes. 
He always pointed to the early act for gradual 
abolition in Pennsylvania as a model, which de- 
served to be followed, and which might already 
have been followed in the South but for the agita- 
tion against slavery and the South's consequent 
rebound from some tendency towards abolition to 
an angry denunciation of all criticism or even 
reference to slavery. 

Neither he nor any other human being foresaw 
the tremendous events of the next decade, but he 
does seem to have pretty well realized the impos- 
sibility of disunion without war, and in another 
writing of about the same date, he wrote, " In the 
Southern States, continual provocation from the 
East begot an unwise belief that dismemberment 
of the Union may be peaceably effected and would 
be better than the present confederacy with fellow- 
citizens unceasingly striking at their possessions 
and vilifying their characters." 

The agitation continued and grew even far more 
violent during the four years of Mr. Buchanan's 
term, but until the outbreak of the secession move- 
ment Mr. IngersoU must have remained a sup- 
porter in the main of his administration. I believe 
that during the campaign of i860 he wrote a letter 
to one of the public papers, urging the support of 
Mr. Breckenridge, but this is the last public act of 

33^ 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

his I have heard of. When the crash of secession 
finally came, he was a very old man, and but little 
has reached me to show his opinions. One in- 
formant has told me that he expressed approval 
of Mr. Lincoln's call for volunteers, and said some- 
thing to the effect that it was the best thing done 
yet. And another person tells me that as he 
lamented to Mr. IngersoU in the street one day 
upon the dangers hanging over the country, Mr. 
IngersoU replied in the deepest grief, and added 
that he was a very old man and off the stage of 
life, could hardly expect even to live to see the 
end of the contest, but that the South had thrown 
down the gauntlet, and the North could not do 
otherwise than take it up and fight for the terri- 
torial integrity of the country. But there was 
coupled with his support of the war the strongest 
disapproval of the violent and ultra measures of 
the administration. 

These expressions of opinion are all that I have 
been able to secure, but they are directly in the 
line which my study of his views would lead me 
to expect. Deeply impressed as he was with the 
incalculable value of the Union, he would, I think, 
have strongly supported a war to maintain it ; and 
no argument of want of constitutional power would 
have carried any weight with him upon an issue 
involving its preservation. With the period of his 
own life covering the whole life of the constitution 

332 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

of his country, brought up by his father to admire 
and revere the instrument the father had aided in 
framing, and himself ever an ardent supporter of 
all the measures which made its glory and were 
possible only in union, he must have stood aghast 
to see in his old age the whole fabric shaking in 
the utter uncertainty of a desperate civil war. All 
that he had believed in and contested for was in 
danger ; the Union was broken, the constitution 
w^as in effect suspended or ignored except as a 
mere frame of government, and the two sections 
of the country, which he had striven for years to 
induce to live in peace, were soon struggling to 
ruin each other in the throes of a furious civil war. 
Instead of commerce and fraternity, war and deso- 
lation held the land in their grasp, and vast armed 
hosts of his countrymen were hurling themselves 
upon one another. 

In the fury of the passions of that day, when 
young men felt that their whole future was at 
stake, and when all the energies of the country 
were bent to the settlement of one great question, 
there was no time for sentimental sorrow or to 
think of the position of old men out of active life ; 
but the deep pathos of the position of Mr. Inger- 
soU and others of his political beliefs and time of 
life can hardly be overstated. They had outlived 
their time, and were left powerless and hopeless, 
while their country was struggling in the agony of 

335 



CHARLES JARED INGERSOLL 

a mighty change, of the outcome of which no one 
could foresee anything unless that it must cut en- 
tirely adrift from all the main beliefs and principles 
which had seemed essential to them. Those of 
them were fortunate who died before the long- 
threatened secession became a fact, and to those 
who as old men survived to that period their 
years must indeed have been a burden and a 
sorrow. They were reserved to endure the pain- 
ful experience which one of the very greatest of 
the orators and intellects of America had earnestly 
hoped might not be his. They were hanging over 
the precipice of disunion, and with their short 
human sight they could not fathom the depth of 
the abyss below. When their eyes were turned 
for the last time to behold the sun in heaven, they 
did see him shining on the broken, if not dishon- 
ored, fragments of a once glorious Union ; on 
States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a 
land rent with civil feuds and drenched in fraternal 
blood. 

Mr. Ingersoll died on the 14th of May, 1862, of 
an inflammation of the lungs. He was within five 
months of eighty years of age. His wife died on 
the 28th of August of the same year. They had 
had eight children, six sons and two daughters, all 
of whom survived them except two sons and one 
daughter. 



334 



TABLE OF REFERENCES. 



1. Page 14. The Ingersoll genealogy is taken from 
facts kindly furnished me by G. Albert Lewis, Esq., and 
from The Ingcrsolls of Hampshire, by Charles S. Ripley. 

2. Page 18. For facts in regard to Jared Ingersoll the 
elder, see Binney's Jared Ingersoll, in Leaders of the Old 
Bar, Simpson's Eminent Philadelphians, under Jared Inger- 
soll, Bancroft's History of the United States, Mahon's His- 
tory of England, vol. v. pp. 86, 87, and Scharf and West- 
cott's History of Philadelphia. His letters from England 
are printed in Life and Times of William Samuel Johnson, 
by E. E. Bcardsley. 

3. Page 25. For Jared Ingersoll the younger, see Bin- 
ney's Jared Ingersoll, Simpson's Eminent Philadelphians, 
Reed's Joseph Reed^ ^Lartiji'^ I3ench and Bar. 

4. Page 36. The account of Mr. Ingersoll' s boyhood 
and youth is taken from various writings of his, some in 
manuscript and partly from letters. The opinion upon 
Colonel Despard's case is from the Dictionary of National 
Biography. 

5. Page 38. Number of October 7, 1805. 

6. Page 40, This appointment is not mentioned in 
Martin's Bench and Bar, but is to be found noticed in the 
Aurora of November 16, 1805, and Paulson s Daily Ad- 
vertiser of November 7, 1805 ; and an advertisement 
signed by him as clerk is to be found in the Aurora of 
August 16, 1808. 

335 



TABLE OF REFERENCES 

7. Page 41. Upon the "would have been a Tory" 
story, see the Democratic Press of June 5, 8, 10, 15, 1807. 

8. Page 45. Philadelphia Magazines and their Contrib- 
utors, by A. H. Smyth, p. 13. 

9. Page 47. The review of Inchiquin in the Portfolio 
is in the numbers for April and May, 181 1 (v. 300, 385). 
The Quarterly Review article is in the number for Janu- 
ary, 18 14. That this article was written by Southeyis sus- 
pected by J. K. Paulding in his reply to the article. 

10. Page 51. For the toast to " our King in England," 
see Mr. Ingersoll's Second War, vol. ii. p. 47. Ames's 
expression in favor of "separate orders" is quoted in 
Randall's Jefferson, vol. i. p. 583 ; from works of Fisher 
Ames, by Seth Ames, vol. i. p. 324. The quotation from 
Morris is from a speech in the Convention of 1787, Elliot's 
Debates, vol. v. p. 271. The political orator quoted is 
John Binns in his "long talk" before the Tammany So- 
ciety of Philadelphia on May 12, 1807; Democratic Press 
of May 15, 1807. 

1 1. Page 54. The story of the feeling of the city aris- 
tocracy during the Snyder-Ross campaign is taken from 
Binns's Recollections, p. 210. Dr. Rush's warning to his 
son Richard appears from a letter of the latter to Dr. Rush 
in the Philadelphia Library. The story of Binns entering 
the bank directory is from his Recollections, pp. 260, 261. 

12. Page 54. Recollections, p. 206. There was evi- 
dently some confusion in Binns's mind as to dates, but this 
is not material to the gist of the story. 

13. Page 61. Democratic Press oi^-a.xQ}a./i^, \Z\\. The 
review is in the issue of February i, 181 1. 

14. Page 63. This removal and appointment are not 
stated in Mr. Martin's Bench and Bar, but are to be found 
noticed in the Democratic Press of March 9, 1809. 



TABLE OF REFERENCES 

15. Page 71. Second War, vol. i. p. 363. 

16. Page 73. I have not been able to find a copy of the 
Democratic Press of the dates in question, but the articles 
are repeatedly referred to in the letters of Mr. Rush. 

17. Page 75. Annals of Congress (Thirteenth Con- 
gress), 1813-14, vol. i. pp. 352, 353. 

18. Page "JT. Annals of Congress (Thirteenth Con- 
gress), 1813-14, vol. iii. pp. 808-810. 

19. Page 80. Number for February 22, 1814. 

20. Page 81. Annals of Congress (Thirteenth Con- 
gress), 1813-14, vol. i. pp. 1421-1425. 

21. Page 83. Annals of Congress (Thirteenth Con- 
gress), 1813-14, vol. iii. p. 812. 

22. Page 84. Washington Letter in the Democratic 
Press of January 17, 1814, from "Tyro." 

23. Page 85. For details of contest with Mr. Stockton, 
see Annals of Congress (Thirteenth Congress), 18 13-14, 
vol. i. pp. 1002, 1005, 1015, 1016. 

24. Page 86, History, vol. ii. p. 417, etc. 

25. Page 88. Second War, vol. iv. p. 280. 

26. Page 97. This account was published in the Wash- 
ington Globe of August 12, 1836, and reprinted in the 
Petiftsylvanian. 

27. Page 104. I have not been able to ascertain to 
what this refers. 

28. Page 139. This translation was published in Hall's 
Law Journal, vol. vi. pp. 153-276. 

29. Page 141. I have not been able to verify this state- 
ment, but it is made both in the sketch of Mr. IngersoU in 
the Democratic Review of October, 1839, vol. vi. pp. 339 
-354, and by Judge Sharswood in his obituar>' notice read 
before the American Philosophical Society. Bulwer was 
among Mr. IngersoU's occasional correspondents. 

22 337 



V 



TABLE OF REFERENCES 

30. Page 144. The address on " Europe long ago" is 
printed in the Democratic Review, vol. v., January, 1839, 
pp. 61-75. The other addresses were all printed in pam- 
phlet form, and are to be found in the Philadelphia Library, 
and doubtless in other places. 

31. Page 149. Parton's Jackson, vol. ii. p. 257, from 
Epes Sargent's Life of Clay. 

32. Page 153. A meagre report of its proceedings is to 
be found in Poulson's Daily Advertiser and in the United 
States Gazette for August, 1825. The fact as to Mr, Inger- 
soll's support of railroads is taken from the sketch of him 
in the Democratic Review oi October, 1839. 

33. Page 1 54. Its proceedings are reported in Niles" s 
Register, 1827, vol. xxxii. p. 388, etc, 

34. Page 165, This letter is to be found in the Pennsyl- 
vanian of June 29, 1S37. Mr. Ingersoll kept carefully the 
papers and reports referring to his accounts as District At- 
torney, and had them all bound up. I do not see any 
need of giving references to them, as the charges are no 
longer of interest. 

35. Page 171. Adams's Diary, vol, viii. p. 442. 

36. Page 176. Second War, vol. ii. p. 269. 

37. Page 177. Schouler's History, vol. iv. p. 72. 

38. Page 183. This fact appears from a Diary, only a 
small portion of which has been preserved, in which are the 
following entries : " Saturday i March. — Called on Mr. N. 
Biddle and informed him as I said to him as a matter of 
feeling as well as propriety after our relations that I am 
about to take a public part against the bank. 

"Monday 3 March. — Called again on Mr. Biddle — fear- 
ing on reflection that I might have been misunderstood by 
him on Saturday — and fully explained to him my opinions 
and views." 



TABLE OF REFERENCES 

39. Page 183. These facts are stated on the authority 
of manuscript copies of the resolutions, and of memoranda 
upon them, in Mr. Ingersoll's handwriting. 

40. Page 1 84. The authority for these statements is the 
sketch in the Democratic Review for October, 1839, 

41. Page 188. Diary of Mr. IngersoU. 

42. Page 188. Thirty Years' View, vol. ii. p. 305. 

43. Page 189. This address was printed in the Pennsyl- 
vanian of July 29, 1835, and was reprinted in the Wash- 
ington Globe of August 12, 1835. 

44. Page 195. These resolutions are contained in news- 
paper clippings preserved by Mr. IngersoU, in a book 
kept for the purpose. I think they are from the Pennsyl- 
vaniaft, and doubtless they were printed in other papers 
also. 

45. Page 196. A copy of this opinion is in my posses- 
sion in a pamphlet entitled "Opinion of the Hon. John 
Fox, President Judge of the Judicial District composed of 
the Counties of Bucks and Montgomery, against the Exer- 
cise of Negro Suffrage in Pennsylvania ; also the Vote of 
the Members of the Pennsylvania Convention on the Mo- 
tion of Mr. Martin to insert the Word ' White' as one of the 
proposed Amendments to the Constitution. Harrisburg, 
1838." 

46. Page 214. My authorities for the statements in 
the text upon this subject are newspaper clippings pre- 
served by Mr. IngersoU. They are from various papers, 
among others the United States Gazette of December 8 
and 10, 1838, and of February' 14, 1839, and the Natchez 
Free Trader of August 12, 1839. ^^^- Jo'^" Ingersoll's 
answer to the denial of his agency is dated December 19, 
1838, -.and is from some newspaper, but I cannot discover 
what one. I presume the controversy was reprinted in the 

339 



TABLE OF REFERENCES 

Philadelphia newspapers. See also Benton' s Thirty Years' 
View, vol. ii. p. 368. 

47. Page 224. See Act of 25th of March, 1843, P. L. 
115. The earlier apportionment was under the Act of 9th 
June, 1832, P. L. p. 560. 

48. Page 228. Mr. Ingersoll's letter was dated Septem- 
ber 13, 1 84 1, and was printed in the Globe and reprinted 
into other papers. The review was in the Washington 
Natio7ial Intelligencer oi September 30, 1841. 

49. Page 230. He so states in his "African Slavery 
in America," p. 17. 

50. Page 231. So Mr. Ingersoll stated in debate in the 
Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1837, vol. vii. 
p. 90. 

51. Page 235, For the quotation from Mr. Adams, see 
Congressional Globe (Twenty-Eighth Congress), First Ses- 
sion, p. 194 ; for William Lloyd Garrison's opinion, see Wil- 
son's Slave Power, vol. i. p. 569, 570, and see also p. 644, 
and vol. ii. p. 107 ; for James Wilson, ibid., vol. ii. p. 207 ; 
Horace Mann, ibid., vol. ii. p. 227 ; Samuel May, ibid., 
vol. ii. p. 154; Henry Wilson, ibid., vol. i. p. 637, and 
see vol. ii. p. 116 ; Wendell Phillips, ibid., vol. i. pp. 479, 
569, and see p. 644, and vol. ii. p. 56 ; for the fact as to 
the rejected professor at Harvard, ibid., vol. ii. p. 444 ; for 
the address to the Legislature of Massachusetts, ibid., vol. ii. 
pp. 424, 444 ; von Hoist's History, vol. v. (1854-56) p. 62 ; 
for the opposition w" ^/ fir;;//^, Wilson's Slave Power, vol. ii. 
pp. 325-327 ; for the Massachusetts laws against the law of 
1793, Curtis' s Webster, vol. ii. p. 386, and see pp. 424, 427 ; 
for the Boston resolutions of 1850, Curtis' s Webster, vol. ii. 
p. 489 ; for the resolutions of the American and New Eng- 
land anti-slavery societies, Wilson's Slave Power, vol. i. 
P- 57 1 1 572 ; for the resolutions of the two State societies, 

340 



TABLE OF REFERENCES 

Curtis's Webster, vol. ii. pp. 399, 400; for Henry Wilson's 
statement that a class of abolitionists agreed with Garrison, 
Slave Power, vol. i. p. 470 ; and for his evidence of their 
general hatred of the Union, ibid., vol. i. pp. 568-575, vol. 
ii. pp. 107, 116, 207, 332, 695, and see also von Hoist's 
History, vol. v. (1854-56) p. 215, note, and vol. ii. (1828- 
46) p. 630, and Ticknor's Life and Letters, vol. ii. p. 

349- 

52. Page 236. For Webster's opinion, Curtis's Web- 
ster, vol. ii. p. 427 ; for Raymond's, von Hoist's History, 
vol. v. (1854-56), foot-note, p. 68. 

53. Page 236. History, vol. iv. p. 423. 

54. Page 246. Co7igressional Globe (Twenty-Seventh 
Congress), First Session, Appendix, pp. 69-75. 

55. Page 247. Co7igressional Globe (Twenty-Seventh 
Congress), Second Session, pp. 644, 645. 

56. Page 249. New York //t-r^r/ff of January 29, 1843. 

57. Page 255. For the facts cited in regard to Texas, 
see von Hoist's History of the United States, vol. ii. (1828- 
46) pp. 552-569, 586, 587; see also Schouler's History, 
vol. iv. pp. 247, 303. 

58. Page 256. Schouler's article on " President Polk's 
administration," in Atlantic Monthly for September, 1895, 
pp. 375, 376 ; see also August number, pp. 235-243. 

59. Page 259. The original of these memoranda has 
been lost, but Mr. Ingersoll quoted at some length from 
them in his sketch of Texas. My citations are from this 
source, and contain everything of any importance from 
them. 

60. Page 270. See his speech in Appendix to Congres- 
sional Globe (Twenty-Ninth Congress), Second Session, p. 
128. 

61. Page 271. This is stated on the authority of a letter 

341 



TABLE OF REFERENCES 

from Mr. Ingersoll to Mr, Gilpin, dated January 9, 1846, 
remarking how odd it was that he should be placed over 
committees against him both on Texas and on Oregon, 
and adding that the resolution lately reported (January 5) 
was a " come by chance." 

62. Page 271. Speech in Appendix to Congressional 
Globe (Twenty-Ninth Congress), First Session, p. 285. 

63. Page 272. Speech in Appendix to Congressional 
Globe (Twenty-Ninth Congress), First Session, p. 99. 

64. Page 277. Dr. Wharton (International Law Digest, 
second edition, § 21, pp. 67-69) doubts whether it is pos- 
sible to admit to its full extent the principle that we cannot 
subject to our municipal laws aliens who violate those laws 
under direction of their sovereign. And he refers to Gre- 
ville (Memoirs : Reign of Queen Victoria, vol. i. p. 334, 
sub March 12, 1841), to show that Senior and Lord Lynd- 
hurst doubted very much the soundness of the English 
contention. The great authors on international law seem 
to have been quoted on both sides. 

65. Page 277. Speech in Congressional Globe (Twtniy- 
Ninth Congress), First Session, p. 642. 

66. Page 278. His two speeches are in Congressional 
Globe (Twenty-Seventh Congress), First Session, p. 75, 
and ibid. (Twenty-Ninth Congress), First Session, p. 344. 

67. Page 286. Curtis' s Webster, vol. ii. pp. 279-281. 

68. Page 288. Von Hoist's United States, vol. iii. (1846 
-50) p. 502, foot-note ; in Memoriam B. O. Tayloe, p. 
109. See also J. Q. Adams's Diary, vol. xi. p. 249, and 
vol. xii. p. 214. 

69. Page 319. Congressional Globe (Twenty-Seventh 
Congress), Second Session, Appendix, p. 306. 

70. Page 323. The facts in regard to Joseph Bonaparte 
are taken from a diary of Mr. Ingersoll, from private let- 

342 



TABLE OF REFERENCES 

ters, from the Second War, and from Georges Berlin's 
Joseph Bonaparte en Amerique. 

71. Page 323. His Influence of America on the Mind, 

P- 13- 

72. Page 324. Journal of House of Representatives, 
February 14, 1831, p. 342 ; see also ibid., pp. 349, 357, 
474, 482, 501, 528 ; see ibid., p, 27, for his resolution in 
regard to imprisonment for debt. 

73. Page 326. Diary of J. Q. Adams, vol. vi. p. 384. 



343 



INDEX. 



Abolition agitation, 222, 223, 231-246, 330, 331. 

Adams, John Quincy, 114, "5. "6, 120, 134, 234, 240-242, 251- 

253. 326. 
•' African Slavery in America," 330. 
Alston, Joseph, 29, 31. 

Americanism of Mr. Ingersoll, 43-4S. 141. 3i7- 
Ames, Fisher, in favor of separate orders in the State, 51. 
Aristocracy of early days, 50, 52. 

Bank of Augusta vs. Earle, 293, 294. 

Bank of United States, 166-178, 181-184, 211-214. 

removal of deposits from, 183, 184. 
Banking system, 185, 199-202. 
Bar, the, Mr. Ingersoll's income in 1812, 67. 

Chief Justice Sharswood's estimate of him as a lawyer, 294-296. 
his practice and methods, 292-299. 
in Washington, meeting to form a Law Library, 124. 
Barr6, Colonel, 14, 15. 
Benton, Thomas H., 188. 

Biddle, Nicholas, 91, 166, 167, 171-174. 176. I77. 213. 214-^ 
Binney, Horace, speaks of the "great subversion in i8oi," 54. 
Binns, John, 41, 51, S3. 60. 
Bonaparte, Joseph, 103, 321-323. 

Napoleon, 49, 92, 145-147. 
British, the, early hatred of Americans, 47. ; 
Brown, General Jacob, 72, 157. 
Buchanan, James, 272, 273, 314. 
Buckshot War, 220. 
Bush-Hill address, 189-194. 

345 



INDEX 

Calhoun, John C, 265-267, 272, 273. 

Canal Convention of 1825, 153. 

" Caroline" dispute, 275-279, 281. 

Children, instances of large numbers of, 127, 128. 

" Chiomara," 33. 

Clay, Henry, 109, 114, 126, 133, 134. 

Coles, Governor Edward, 134. 

Columbus, witty remark of a lady in regard to, 304. 

Common people, how they come to the front in times of revolution, 

319- 
Congress, powers of committee of, 188. 

Mr. Ingersoll's campaigns for, 67, 207-211, 219-224, 290, 291. 
course in, generally, 227-230, 249, 253. 
speech on the twenty-first rule, 238-246. 
speech on the tariff, 247. 

speech on Mr. Tyler's exchequer plan, 248, 249, 
contests with Mr. Adams, 251-253. 
views as to function of Middle States, 251, 252. 
course on Texas question, 256-258, 268-270. 
diary of events during Texas negotiations, 259-268. 
account of final steps in annexation, 269, 270. 
connection with Oregon dispute, 270-272. 
reproaches the Southerners for their opposition to Oregon, 

271. 
conflict with Mr. Webster, 277-291. 
Convention, Canal, or Improvement of 1825, 153. 

Constitutional, of 1837, 195-207. 
Corporations, Mr. Ingersoll's minority report on, 200-202. 
Court, Mr. Ingersoll appointed Clerk of Orphans', 40, 63. 

United States Supreme, copy of rules hardly to be obtained, 130. 

judges dining out, 123. 
See Bar, the. 
Crawford, William H., no, 115, 116, 134. 
Cuba, 112, 113, 130, 263. 
Currency. See Banking System. 

Dallas, Alexander J., letters to, 65, 89-91, 101-104. 
Dallas, George M., 103, 172. 

346 



INDEX 

Dartmouth College case, doctrine of, 192, 199. 
Davis, Jefferson, 288. 
Decatur, Commodore Stephen, 72. 
Democracy in America, growth of, 49-55. 
Mr. Ingersoll's views upon, 318-320. 
Dennie, Joseph, 37, 44. 
Despard, Colonel, execution of, 35. 
Dickinson, Daniel S., 280. 
District Attorney of United States, 94, 160. 

charges against Mr. IngersoU of improper conduct as, 162- 
166. 
Drew vs. Swift, 297, 298. 
Dwight, Timothy, his reply to the Quarterly Review, 48. 

Earle, Bank of Augusta vs., 293, 294. 

Thomas, 183. 
Education. See Public Schools. 
" Edwy and Elgiva," 32. 

England, her too great influence in .America, 305, 325. 
" Europe long ago," 144-147. 
Exchequer system, Mr. Tyler's plan for, 248, 249. 



Federalists, views of the old, 50, 51, 85-87. 

Findlay, William, 106. 

Florida campaign, 150-153. 

Foreign Affairs, chairman of, Mr. IngersoU as, 229, 256-273. 

" Foreign Missions, Law of," 139, 326, 328. 

Foreign missions, Mr. Ingersoll's views on, 157, 249, 250. 

Forsyth, John, 29, 73, 167, 275, 276. 

France, early triumphs of the republic, 49. 

excitement against, in 1798, 30, 31. 

Mr. Ingersoll's desire for trade with, 157. 
mterest in, 320-323. 

personal arrest in, witnessed by Mr. IngersoU, 147. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 16. 
" Free ships, free goods," 80, 85. 

French mission, Mr. Ingersoll's nomination for and defeat, 291. 

347 



INDEX 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 234. 

Gentry of colonial times a true aristocracy, 50, 52. 

Gilmer, Thomas W., 259, 260. 

Gilpin, Henry D., 203, 204, 210, 294. 

Hiester, Joseph, 105, 106. 
Hull, General William, 72. 

" Improvement of Government," 140. 

" Inchiquin," 44-48. 

Industry of Mr. Ingersoll, 139, 140. 

" Influence of America on the Mind," 140. 

Ingersoll, Jared, the elder, 14-18. 

Ingersoll, Jared, the younger, 18-25. 

Ingersoll, John, 213-215. 

Jackson, Andrew, 149-153, 160, 170, 173, 174, 177-184, 189-191. 
refunding of his fine, 250, 251. 

Mr. Ingersoll's pamphlet on, origin of, 250, 251. 
Jay's treaty, proceedings at meeting to denounce, 28. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 73. 
Jones, William, 65. 
Judiciary, Mr. Ingersoll's plans for, in Constitutional Convention, 

198. 
" Julian, a tragedy," 328. 

King, Rufus, 33, 42, 56, 107. 

La Fayette, 140-143. 

Law of nations, Mr. Ingersoll favored a liberal, 324-326. 

Lawyers. See Bar, the. 

Lewis, Major William B., 262. 

Livingston, Edward, 172-176. 

Lloyd, Governor Edward, 125. 

Madison, President, 45, 97, 231, 244, 245, 326. 
Matrimonial venture, Mr. Ingersoll's aid invoked, 99. 

348 



INDEX 

Maury, Mrs., 314-316. 

McClenachan, Blair, 28. 

McDuffie, George, 174, 175. 323. 

McKcan, Thomas, Governor, 55. 

McLeod, Alexander, 276-278. 

McMichael, Morton, 221. 

Mechanics' lien laws, 324. 

Mexican War, 254, 255, 270. f^' 

See Texas. 
Middle States. Mr. Ingersoll's views as to their function, 251, 252. 
Mobs, Mr. Ingersoll's views as to, 319, 320. 
Monroe, President, 98, 117, 127, 150. 
Moore, Thomas, 39. 
Morris, Gouverneur, what he thought the Senate should be, 51. 

Naylor, Charles, 208-209, 219-221. 

Negro suffrage in Pennsylvania, 196. 

Nelson, Admiral, 72. 

Northeastern boundary question, 278, 279, 282, 283. 

Nullification, 160. 

Office, removals from, Mr. Ingersoll's ideas upon, 226. 

Oregon, 270-272, 

Orphans' Court, Mr. IngersoU appointed Clerk of, 40, 63. 

Paper money, 200-202. 

Parties, political. See Politics. 

Partisan, offensive, 226. 

Patriotism. See Americanism. 

Paulding, J. K., reply to the Quarterly Review, 48. 

Penn, William, Mr. Ingersoll's address to commemorate his landing, 

143- 
Phillips, Wendell, 234. 

Poinsett, Joel R., iii, 116. 

Political views of Mr. IngersoU, growth of 48-60. 
Politics early in the century, 37-44, 52-62, 105, 106. 
irritations of 204-206. 

349 



INDEX 

Politics, Mr. Ingersoll's entrance into, 48, 55, 56, 60-63. 
called home " to save the ticket," 225. 
ideas on removals from office, 226. 
See Congress. 
Polk, James K., 272, 273. 
Popular government, Mr. Ingersoll's belief in, 318-320. 

See Democracy. 
Portfolio, the, 32, 33, 37. 
Press, the, venality of, 144. 
Princeton College, 29, 30. 
Protection, 208, 246, 247. 

Public schools, Mr. Ingersoll's course upon, in Convention of 1837, 
197, 198. 

Railroads, Mr. Ingersoll advocates them in 1825, 153. 

Reciprocity, 157. 

" Recollections," 327-328. 

Reed, Joseph, 19. 

Removal of deposits from United States Bank, 183, 184. 

" Rights and Wrongs," 41, 324. 

" River Rights," 188. 

Robins, John J., 291. 

Roman Catholics, 316, 317, 

Rush, Benjamin, Dr., 53. 

Richard, 29, 54, 72, 105-107. 

Secession, outbreak of, 331-333. 

Senate, United States, Mr. Ingersoll proposed for, 161. 

Sergeant, John, 203. 

bar-meeting on death of, 307, 308. 
Seward, William H., 277-279, 280, 281. 
Sharswood's, Chief Justice, estimate of Mr. Ingersoll as a lawyer, 

294-296. 
Slavery, 191, 230-236, 330, 331. 

See African Slavery. 
Smith, F. O. J., 282, 283. 

Snyder, Simon, election as governor, 53, 58, 106. 
Stamp Act, the, 15-18. 

350 



)N 



281949 



INDEX 

Stevens, Thaddeus, 202. 
Stockton, Richard, 84. 
Sub-Treasury system, 215-219, 250. 

Mr. IngersoU's early plan for, 217-219. 
Swift, Drew vs., 297, 298. 

Tariff, the, 154-159, 246, 247. 

See Protection. 
Taylor, John, of Caroline, iir. 
Texas, 254-270. 

Mr. IngersoU's diary of events at the time of annexation, 259- 
268. 
plan to annex by bill, in case of defeat of treaty, origin of, 
266-268. 
the annexationists appealed to the people from an adverse Con- 
gress, 267, 268. 
"Tory, would have been a," 40, 207. 
Tyler, John, 247, 248, 262, 268, 272, 273. 

United States, warlike tendencies of, 117. 

Walker, Robert J., 261-263. 
War of 1812, history of, 327, 328. 
Washington, President, 26, 27. 

dissatisfaction against, during Revolution, 303. 
Washington, entertaining at, early in the century, 122, 123. 13S, 136. 
Webster, Daniel, 73, 77. iQ^-^QS. 274. 27S. 277. 278. 

gifts accepted by, 288. 

Mr. IngersoU's conflict with, 278-291. 

Mr. Benton's estimate of, 281. 
Wilkins, William, 161, 172, 175. 
Wilson, Henry, 234. 

Wines, nati%^e, at Washington dinners, ii3, 124, 128. 
Winthrop, Robert C, 272, 286. 
Wright, Governor Robert, 126. 

THE END. 



■!■>■ 



mmmmimmmmm^m^ 




